Serena Chow

Origin: Born in a Hong Kong brothel, half-Chinese and half-English, Serena Chow grew up an orphan: her mother died in childbirth, and she did not know who her father was for most of her childhood. She grew up on the streets until the age of 12¸when the growing family resemblance caused one of her father’s business rivals to kidnap her and hold her for leverage against him. This did not agree with her, and she promptly escaped by picking the lock on her room with a hairpin, and hitting the guard over the head with a heavy brass doorstop.

Serena’s father is the powerful British business and industrial magnate Sir John Carlyle, Lord Eladale. Carlyle is the archetype of the “self-made man”—his peerage originally consisted of little more than a few thousand acres of mostly farmland and a run-down manor back on the British Isle, but there were business opportunities to be had in Britain and in the Colonies. Over the years, Carlyle Industries grew into one of the world’s leading industrial concerns, easily rivaling Carnegie or Rockefeller’s holdings, and Carlyle himself was knighted for “services to the British Empire.” Carlyle was not without his youthful indiscretions—but most of them were not quite so flagrant as producing a half-Chinese daughter.

Despite the potential embarrassment, this man took Serena into his life and raised her as his own. It was either that or have her “disappear,” and for all his moral weakness in causing her to be born in the first place, the man simply did not have it in him to do anything so repugnant—and besides, to his astonishment, Carlyle found himself quite taken with her when they first met. He arranged for her education, and hushed up the circumstances surrounding her origins as best he could—which, given his resources, was actually rather well (hence the Cipher rating). As far as the public knew (and the doctorable public records showed), she was the sole issue of a formerly-concealed marriage. Since Carlyle was an avowed bachelor with no other children, this meant that Serena suddenly became his sole heir, much to British high society’s consternation (and to the chagrin of her cousins back on the British Isle, who as the closest living relatives had formerly stood to inherit a fortune).

Serena was not without a certain amount of influence on Carlyle, either—it was at her insistence that Carlyle Industries became one of the first business interests in Hong Kong to sever ties with the profitable opium trade. Serena hated opium with a passion—she had watched it bring many of her friends and acquaintances to ruin as she spent her childhood on the streets. Her father had never given it much thought before, but he was soon brought around to Serena’s way of thinking—although certain other elements in Carlyle Industries were not so easily swayed.

Despite her father’s exhortations to be “ladylike,” Serena grew up with a flamboyant taste for adventure. She learned what her father deemed necessary—picking up a decent education, an understanding of how to deal with bureaucracy, and a smattering of engineering so as to better understand his Carlyle Industries’ doings—but only as much as he deemed necessary. On her own, she sought out the world’s best instructors in what she wished to know—firearms, fighting, exploring—and used her father’s money to pay her way to learn. It was during this training, at the age of 16, that she achieved her Inspiration.

While returning from the shooting range one night, Serena noticed a light burning in one of the Carlyle warehouses—a warehouse she knew was supposedly abandoned. Taking a pearl-handled .38 automatic from her car’s glove box, she investigated, and discovered some scientists from the company’s chemical division conducting an unauthorized experiment into Z-ray-enhanced opium refinement.

Unfortunately, as she was trying to retreat to call the police (or at least her father’s security department), she knocked over an empty metal barrel, causing a clatter that led to her discovery. In the shoot-out that followed, a stray bullet hit the vat of chemicals under Z-ray refinement, causing the entire apparatus to detonate and bathe her in Z-charged chemicals. The chemical bath had two immediately apparent effects.

First, it enhanced her ability and drive to learn, causing her to excel and sharpen her skills with the gun. It may also have enhanced her own innate sense of direction—even as a young child, Serena always had a strange knack for directions and locations. She could easily tell exactly where she was—even if blindfolded. She could sense direction, turns, and location, at some level within her mind, so that when she was kidnapped by her father’s rivals, she knew just how to escape, even though she had not seen how she came in.

Second, it changed every hair on her body from light brown to a peculiar shade of light blue—right down to the roots, which continue to grow out that way. It puzzled Serena, but after a time she came to regard it almost as a badge of honor for standing up to the opium trade. In private, she is rather proud of it, but knows that the world would not understand, and uses a set of solutions devised by her father’s chemists to alter its color. These solutions are not ordinary dyes, but catalytic compounds that temporarily alter the chemical composition of the hair itself, allowing it to take on any shade from white to black. However, they gradually oxidize and must be reapplied every few days. Since she has to apply the coloring agents so often, she usually varies the color with each application—blonde one day, flaming redhead the next, and so on—leaving a hint of mystery as to just what her natural color really is.

Now that she’s reached the age of majority, Serena wants nothing more than to adventure, jet-setting (well, propeller-setting anyway) the world in search of things that strike her fancy. Serena’s fancy is mainly seeing new things—exploring odd corners of the world, finding hidden treasures, meeting new people, tasting new foods, and so on. She also has a fondness for firearms, and has been starting a collection of her favorite handguns. Serena feels no adventure is complete unless she can add at least one new pistol—which had some meaning for her during the adventure—to her collection.

Serena especially likes flaunting popular attitudes about women—that they should be seen and not heard, frail little creatures who must be protected. In typical circumstances, she is more likely to do the protecting. She is also rather fond of setting the vice of racism and the vice of greed against each other in those she meets—often using business cards from her father’s company to reveal her full identity. Though Serena goes by “Serena Chow” to honor her mother and avoid unwanted publicity, her full legal name is Serena Chow Carlyle, and she holds British citizenship and papers.

Virtue: Sees herself as a beautiful, talented adventurer capable of handling any problem that comes up with a suitable application of firepower. Receives a Willpower point for any circumstance that validates that point of view.

Vice: Has a temper that can be excited by certain of her pet peeves—discrimination/intolerance (particularly on race or gender) or exploitation (particularly opium or white-slavery). Must spend a Willpower point to avoid flying off the handle with both guns blazing against a sea of troubles.

Languages: Chinese (particularly Cantonese), English


(Key: The first column of numbers is the total points, with “m” meaning a mastered skill; the second column is bonus points spent to raise to that total; the third (with the “i”) denotes points from the Inspiration-bought pool of 10 extra abilities points)

STRENGTH 2

Archery:

Brawl:

Might:

DEXTERITY 4

Athletics: 2 2i

Firearms: 5m 2i

Specialty: Pistols +1

Legerdemain 2

Martial Arts 2

Melee 2 1i

Stealth 2

STAMINA 2

Endurance

Resistance

PERCEPTION 2

Awareness 1

Investigation 1 2

Navigation 5m 3i

INTELLIGENCE 3

Academics 1

Bureaucracy 1

Engineering 1

Linguistics 1

Medicine

Science

Survival 2 2

WITS 1

Arts

Drive: 1 1i

Pilot:

APPEARANCE 3

Disguise 3 1i

Intimidation

Style 1

MANIPULATION 1

Animal Handling

Interrogation

Savvy

Subterfuge

CHARISMA 3

Command

Etiquette 2

Perform

Rapport

BACKGROUND

Allies: 1 1

Backing:

Cipher: 2 1

Contacts:

Followers:

Gadget:

Influence: 3 2

Menagerie:

Mentor:

Nemesis:

Reputation:

Resources: 5 2

Sanctum:

Willpower: 5 4

Inspiration: 4

Knacks -- Daredevil

Lightning Reflexes 2

Enhanced Impact (Firearms) 2

Trick Shot 2

Skill Mastery: Navigation 1

Skill Mastery: Firearms 1

3 more Inspiration Points 3

10 more skill points 2

Serena’s Guns

Save for highly extenuating circumstances, Serena carries at least six pistols on her person at all times, on the principle that it’s faster to drop and draw than to pause and reload. Two of these are usually revolvers, two are automatics, and the other two may be one or the other. She has also been known to carry derringers, either on Wild Wild West-style spring-loaded sleeve holsters or in a purse/handbag if she has to dress feminine. Or both.

Favored weapons, usually carried in pairs, include:

Le Mat Revolver: 9-shot .44 rimfire revolver with a single-shot 18-gauge shotgun barrel mounted underneath. Heirlooms of the American Old West, as are . . .

Colt M1873 "Peacemaker" .45 revolver: An oldie, but a goodie.

C96 “Broomhandle” Mauser automatic: 10-shot 7.63mm pistol known for its ubiquity and accuracy.

Luger P08 9mm automatic: 8-shot automatic pistols. Fine German craftsmanship, nein?

Colt 1911A1 .45 Automatic: Simple, elegant, accurate, and reliable. Serena often carries four of these, though may sometimes carry a pair of the smaller .38 or .32 autos instead.

Sawed-Off Shotguns: There’s nothing like a good sawed-off double-barrel full of buckshot to clear a crowded room.

Miscellaneous: An assortment of modern automatics or revolvers--.38 Detective Specials, Smith & Wessons, Webleys, Colts, and so on—whatever’s handy, though she prefers the above. Serena will basically consider most guns “disposable”—and with her wealth, she can afford to. Exceptions to this include the Le Mats (which are getting pretty hard to find by now) and whatever gun she’s picked up for her trophy case.

Serena will also use submachine guns or full-sized shotguns or rifles as the situation calls for it, but feels they aren’t “personal” enough. She may also carry smoke or gas bombs, or a grenade or two if she can get away with it.

In most situations, Serena’s favored outfits tend toward the tomboyish—jeans or other trousers, long-sleeved shirt or blouse, leather jacket or even a longcoat for good concealment of her weapons. When she must wear dresses, she may strap a holster to her leg, often with a concealed slit in the side of the skirt to allow her to reach it. In extreme circumstances, she may rely on tape to conceal a small handgun where she thinks it might not be found—the small of her back, her cleavage, or other places.

Serena usually keeps a good bit of ammo for these guns, on her person or in a handbag, and even more in whatever car, motorcycle, or other vehicle she might be driving at the time. She tends to carry a boot knife and a Victorinox Swiss Army blade as well.