ER:Sister Rose

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Sister Rose is a major character in the Errant Road free-form role-playing game, notable for her extreme virtuosity with polymorph magic. Like nearly all characters in Errant Road, she's unknown in the Poe-verse, whether in a different shape or not. Her basic concept is described here. Note that she was originally intended as a non-player character, but she has proven to be so much fun to play, and so important to developments in the assorted Veracian threads, that she's now a full player character, run by Graybeard.

Sister Rose is a nun at the Veracian mission in Kiyoka, although she has (grudgingly) admitted an earlier career in the Veracian military, in which she was known as Major Rose Nuria-Lucas. She is first encountered at the mission as player character Argus Cleiviein is being recruited to help the Veracians understand Kiyokan officialdom's curious indifference to some of the events at the mission. She joins Argus and fellow NPC Brother Farley in an attempt to get information out of the sinister Captain Kitaura, head of the Tsuirakuan homeland-security-cum-police-force operation in town. This attempt fails when it becomes clear that Kitaura is ... immune ... to her charms, but in any event, the Kitaura-squeezing soon takes a back seat to the search for the suspiciously missing Father Egbert, who's gone walkabout in Veracia. Sister Rose joined Argus and NPC Brother Miguel there as they attempted to find the good father, which didn't go well. Although Miguel has gone home to his main squeeze (mini-skirted nun Sister Marilyn), Rose dutifully remains with Argus, and a whole cast of curious characters, as their adventures in Veracia continue.

Sister Rose has most of the magical skills of any nun in the Veracian Church, but in addition, is astonishingly skilled at changing her own appearance, not via illusion but by actual rearranging of the flesh. Her known images include nun in her late thirties (her actual form), successful Kiyokan businesswoman, fortyish piano teacher (to Brother Farley's girlfriend Corporal Kristi Yugawa), Veracian army officer, farm girl, and even dominatrix, although she'll probably never use that one again. She also is highly skilled at the use of an Empathy spell to understand the inner workings of selected people she meets, although the capability stops short of actual mind reading. Whatever form she takes, her startling green eyes attract attention.

Although she's an unusually powerful spellcaster for a Veracian (if not necessarily for Veracian clergy), she doesn't always ration her magic use very carefully, and she has an unsettling tendency, particularly in situations where healing magic is needed, to cast and cast and keep casting until she literally drops in her tracks and falls asleep (she snores). This has led to certain ... incidents on the road. However, being the kind of person she is, she probably wouldn't have it any other way.

Rose's backstory has been emerging as Errant Road proceeds. She grew up in a fairly normal and happy Veracian family, and her shapeshifting skills were recognized early and caused her to be recruited first for the church, then for the military. In her military time, she rose rapidly to the rank of Major, and in the process, met her husband, a half elf and fellow military man named Kenny Lucas. Kenny, alas, died a few years ago, before the start of Errant Road, and she has never stopped mourning him, although she bravely tries to pretend otherwise.

Known connections

  • Argus: Deeply respects as a valued colleague in the search for Egbert. Rose feels sorry for him and is almost overwhelmed by all the pain he carries around. The fact that he's Tsuirakuan, and certainly not a believer in Luminosita, doesn't seem to bother her at all. She is starting to show distinct signs of being attracted to him, not quite to the point of "falling in love" but heading in that general direction, progress being slowed by the pain both of them still feel regarding their late spouses -- no, scratch all that, they are definitely in love.
    • Harker: Embarrassed by, not so much because of his lewd "works of art" as the relationship (such as it is) that he has with Argus. She wishes Harker wouldn't cause Argus so much pain.
  • Cithule ("Cit"): Disturbed by. Cit reminds her too much of the half elves that she encountered at the Albigenish Incident -- and helped wipe out, although she herself never swung a sword or fired a shot or a spell (at least not a lethal one). She wouldn't be unhappy at all if he wandered off on his own, rather than tagging along with the party.
  • Father Egbert: Disturbed by. She had always considered Egbert an entirely satisfactory assistant Abbot and colleague in the church -- but when he went on the lam, she started to wonder what she'd been missing, a concern that has only been amplified by all of the interactions she's had in Veracia.
  • Kristi Yugawa: In one of her shape-shifted forms, she's Kristi's piano teacher. She's fond of the young Tsuirakuan and hopes that things work out between her and Brother Farley, whom she also likes greatly.
  • Lillith: Takes an almost maternal interest in, never mind that Lillith is actually only three or four years younger than she is. She values Lillith's idealism and respect for living things, and is bothered by her weird religious beliefs only to the extent that they make her worry about the eternal well-being of Lillith's soul. Lillith's blooming sort-of-romance with -- no, scratch that as well, marriage to -- Rose's cousin Brad delights Rose greatly, and she fervently hopes that it all works out.
  • Sasha: Confused by. She's utterly at a loss to understand Sasha's apparent transformation into a half elf, being well aware from her years with Kenny that half-elf-ness isn't a changeable thing.
  • Drusia: In cahoots with, following a rather rocky start. She has discovered that Drusia, improbably enough, is her many-times-great-grandmother-in-law, a fact that has done wonders for their relationship, and gone far to overcome her initial suspicion of Drusia's intentions with regard to Lillith.
  • Suriah: Viewed in much the same light as Lillith, except that it's Rose's gggggrandmother-in-law (Drusia) that Suriah is becoming involved with, rather than her cousin. Anyway, she likes the young half-elf woman and wants to take care of her.
  • Maduin: Generally gets along well with (Rose basically gets along with practically everybody), although she is nervous about Maduin's casual virtuosity with some spooky forms of magic, and uncomfortable with his role as Argus' "minder" (from the Tsuirakuan point of view, if not necessarily Argus' and Maduin's).
  • Desiree: Generally likes, even though Desiree is a priestess of a very different deity than Rose's. They shared a painful moment in Snamish that has left Rose curious about what makes Desiree tick, and she has promised Drusia that she'll protect the young woman (who happens to be Drusia's youngest daughter) while they're on the road. However, if she was aware of the depth of Desiree's past involvement with Rose's late husband, her feelings might be ... different. Or maybe not.
  • Benedict Lucas: Kenny's father, and therefore Rose's (former?) father-in-law. Following a somewhat rocky start owing to the general Snamishite suspicion of the world beyond, they came to love each other dearly, and remain very close long after Kenny's death.
  • Brother Timothy: One of the few Errant Road characters that Rose doesn't generally see eye-to-eye with. She respects his devotion to Luminosita and his calling, but can't understand why their shared experiences on the road haven't gotten him to lighten up a bit (let alone confront some of the faith-threatening things they've seen that she herself is struggling with).
  • Therese: Quickly came to value greatly following their shared, harrowing experiences in Goriel. She is almost academically interested in the tall red-head's religious beliefs, for the light they may throw on the way the trolls do things, and the very non-Luminositan nature of those beliefs doesn't seem to bother her at all.

Sister Rose might have met Lucas, Jamie, Layla, etc., in Kiyoka, but doesn't really know any of them. She is on good terms with pretty well everyone in the mission, and they in turn are fiercely protective of her -- not that they really need to be, what with her spellcraft, special-ops background and so on, but that's just the kind of person she is.

It says a great deal about Sister Rose's personality that one of the lines that comes out of her mouth (or at least her thoughts) most frequently is "Let's see if I can defuse this."

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