Granite

Powers:

Elemental Affinity / Earth (i): the ability that sets dwarves apart from ordinary man, this power describes a sort of kinship that dwarves have with the earth and similar, earthly bodies. This affinity allows Marissa a few special skills and tricks related to earth and stone, as described here:

* Dark Vision (w): whether this involves infrared or ultraviolet rays, or something else entirely, the fact is that Marissa has the ability to see in the dark - period. Even in complete darkness underground, Marissa can pierce the black veil with intensity 8 ability, even if everything is colorless when she does so.

* Depth Perception (w): by getting in tune with the earth around her, Marissa can tell how far below the surface she is, no matter how deep she may be. This intensity 8 ability can usually also tell her if she is standing on some sort of slope or if her current surface is flat (it's like a built-in level).

* Stone Work (a): thanks to her natural affinity with stone work, Marissa receives a powerful bonus when making something out of stone or earth, whether it be an axe blade or a castle. This is a difficulty reduction to any stone working actions, even though she lacks the engineering skill.

Portal Sense (w): being a planar entity, Marissa has the ability to perceive the various rifts that dot the planescapes of the multiverse. Most of these doorways are invisible to the naked eye, but Marissa has the skill necessary to spot these with ease, doing so with intensity 8 ability.

Resistance to Aging (s): in addition to their affinity with the earth, dwarves are possessed of exceptional longevity, having a lifespan that is much longer than that of mere humans. Marissa possesses this power at intensity 1, and has an eventual lifespan of approximately 560 years.

Size Alteration (a): dwarves possess this power primarily to describe their diminutive size; while they still weigh as much as normal humans, they're generally shorter, usually averaging around four and a half feet tall. As such, they nominally have this power for descriptive purposes.

In other words, Marissa cannot change her size, possessing the Shrinking Only and Permanent limitations. Marissa possesses this 'power' at intensity 3, and the resultant Strength / Agility changes are described in her statistics, above. Should Marissa fight other dwarves, these should be adjusted accordingly.

Schooling: Disciple / Geomancy (Earth Specialist): while most dwarves tend to learn how to fight at an early age, Marissa spent her time studying the mysterious ways of the mystic ever since she learned how to read. Thus far, she's developed the following magic powers and tricks:

Nature Control / Earth (s) (i): the core spell of Marissa's specialized school of magic, this power allows her to shape the earth with ease. Functioning at intensity 10, she can use this spell to move, mold or manipulate natural earth in offensive, defensive, or other capacities as she sees fit.

Bands (u) (a): using tendrils grown out of the earth itself, Marissa can immobilize a target with powerful bands of rock. Doing so requires a wrestling maneuver with this intensity 12 spell, and if Marissa succeeds with this attack, there is a small chance her opponent is bound, gagged and/or blinded.

Magic Sense (p) (w): Marissa has learned how to perceive the lines of mystic force that permeate the multiverse, whether or not they relate to earthly magics. She can see such energies with intensity 15 ability, though she cannot do so unless she spends the time to cast this spell first.

Planar Bridge (d) (i): one of Marissa's most dangerous abilities is this spell, which allows her to interface her body with an elemental realm of earth. When doing this, she literally transforms into a portal into said realm, and can pass intensity 14 amounts of material back and forth as is necessary.

This can simply work as a passage to and from the earthly elemental realm, allowing as much as ten tons of material to cross through her body in one sitting. However, Marissa can use this power as a devastating attack, producing high-velocity earth that inflicts spell rank blunt or sharp damage.

Swirl (s) (i): a fun application of Marissa's earth magic is her ability to collect a large amount of the stuff, and spin it around her body in a tornado-like fashion to protect herself from injury. She can do this with intensity 14 ability, a power that provides her like protection from attack (like a force field).

Telepathy (p) (w): as long as someone she would like to communicate with is standing on the same earthly body as she is, Marissa can communicate with them telepathically. She can do this with intensity 15 ability, allowing contact with any earth-bound being within around 1,000 miles.

Equipment:

Rock Hammer (w): made from 'pure' elemental earth, this stone hammer is a handy mystic implement. Possessing a material strength of 20, Marissa can use this weapon to inflict her Strength +2 damage in melee, though the hammer's uses don't end there.

Marissa's hammer has the power of returning, for one thing. She can fling it at any opponent only to see it fly back to her person unimpeded, assuming no power of intensity 20 or less interrupts this trip. If such a potent ability acts to block the hammer's return, it will not do so until said ability quits working.

Most dangerously, though, Marissa's hammer can cause a minor earthquake. When she strikes it against the ground, it will give off a devastating, intensity 15 ripple of vibration that will affect everything within firing (near missile) distance of her person, which is often enough to collapse weaker structures.

Hindrances:

(none)

Skills:

Boxing (s): while she's no combat monster, Marissa was taught how to defend herself when necessary; in a realm where giants walk the earth, this is vital. She can divide her pre-cardplay action score between two unarmed attacks, the last of which occurs as a contingent action.

Hammers (s): not quite a fan of the 'axe' crowd, Marissa learned how to use a hammer during her childhood; at the very least, she figured she could expand this skill into carpentry if necessary. She can wield hammers of any type at one difficulty level lower than is normally necessary.

Languages / Dwarven, Eladrin, English, French, German, Hebrew, Slaadi, and Spanish (i): a major portion of Marissa's studies involve mastering obscure languages. As such, she's easily picked up these languages, being able to speak, read and write in each of these tongues.

Occult (i): having studied the ways of magic for years, Marissa can be considered an expert in such matters. As such, she should receive a difficulty reduction on all actions regarding occult knowledge, especially regarding specific magical people / places / things / entities of power.

Calling:

Adventurer: while Marissa is mostly concerned with just doing her job - and doing it well - it is important for her to be challenged when doing so. If she doesn't feel at least a little bit challenged when doing her job, she'll quickly grow bored with it, and may find herself 'improvising' when she shouldn't...

Costume:

Marissa doesn't wear spandex, as do most of her clients. No, when working she simply wears a white T-shirt under a blue denim pair of overalls. She complements this with a tool belt chock full of handy items and devices, not to mention brown leather, steel-toed work boots and an occasional construction hat.

Personality:

Marissa is an exceedingly structured young dwarf who has come far in her chosen field. Professional and morally ambiguous, she has no problem working for anybody, good or evil, but doesn't engage in criminal enterprise herself. She easily grows bored if not challenged in her work, however.

Real Name: Marissa Hewn
Occupation: craftswoman
Legal Status: naturalized American citizen with no known criminal record (this thanks to the efforts of a more helpful client, one who specializes in creating 'paper trails' when necessary)
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: none

Height: 4' 4"
Hair: brown
Eyes: brown
Weight: 170 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: Marissa is short by human standards, having a particularly stocky build - though she looks perfectly normal according to dwarven eyes.

Story:

Born on the craggy planes of Ysgard, a chaotic universe peopled with similarly minded people, Marissa grew up disdaining the behavior of those entities that occupied her world. Now, dwarves are a generally structured people, but Marissa is excessively so; she even finds her fellow dwarves chaotic.

As such, she didn't spend most of her youth duking it out with her fellows, much less learning how to really 'mix it up' in a fight. Instead, Marissa occupied most of her childhood learning how to speak, read and write in a plethora of different languages, not to mention studying spellcraft.

Though she still throws a mean hammer if she has to.

Being that dwarves typically work with and/or under the earth, Marissa decided to specialize in earth magic, allowing her to shape such matter to her will. While some dwarves considered this 'cheating', Marissa made quite a successful business for herself in the construction of underground chambers.

The only problem was that she eventually grew bored with building pits that other people would fine-tune into their family crypts and treasure troves and whatnot. So, she set out from her home in the village of Axe's Head and began to wander far and wide on Ysgard, but didn't find what she was looking for.

That's why she started walking the planes.

Several misadventures later, Marissa has wound up on earth, and decided that she likes it here. Though people are seemingly untouched by magic and the like, she's found a market for her services, over time, for people that require her special services. The only problem is that they're usually insane.

This because there's always some evil genius or would-be world-conquering army that needs some sort of underground headquarters, and frankly, it's hard to dig a hole over a mile deep. So, Marissa just offers her services as an earth mover to people that need such facilities.

She knows that they're up to no good for the most part, but Marissa doesn't care. She's looking for a challenge, and the bizarre specifications laid out by people in spandex bodysuits that go by the name of 'Armageddon' or 'Major Mayhem' usually push her to the limits of even her considerable abilities.

She's not into the whole criminal enterprise thing herself, though. She's received several offers from her customers for further employment as an enforcer or bodyguard, but she's respectfully declined. After all, she knows that these guys have enemies; plenty of her business involves setting up replacement bases.

While she is generally highly regarded in villainous circles as a professional who doesn't ask questions, Marissa does have an enemy, and a powerful one at that. This enemy comes in the form of the Society of Eludicated Brethren, a brotherhood of sorts that works to promote an 'ideal magical society'.

The only problem is that they want to control just what magic society has access to, leaving the rest for themselves. Marissa doesn't feel this is right, what with competition being the best motivator to do good work in her eyes. As such, she refused to join the group when they offered her membership.

Since then, the group has been amping up the pressure on Marissa, either to join them or to quit using her magic for hire. They don't think it's proper that all these other people are reaping the benefits of magic without their stewardship, and are bent on putting a stop to it.

Luckily, Marissa's customers need her services enough that they are more than willing to occasionally step in (for a discount on their next order, of course) and 'discourage' would-be Society 'persuaders'. This is rare, though, for Marissa is usually more than capable of taking care of herself...

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