Isobel “Maggie” Magee
Physical Description
Maggie Magee is a small woman who carries herself large. She stands only 5’2″, has black hair and green eyes, and weathered brown skin. She is well curved, with the breasts and hips of a woman who’s given birth, but she’s too active to be fat.
Maggie enjoys wearing brightly colored, voluminous skirts, loose-fitting blouses, and leather boots. When she’s riding she adds leather gloves and a hat. Within the folds of her skirts she can easily hide daggers and knives, and even a small sword.
History
Born as Isobel Magee, as a small child she couldn’t pronounce her first name, and referred to herself by her last name. The nickname stuck, and she’s been Maggie ever since. In fact, there’s no one alive today who knows her name is actually Isobel.
She had a rather typical childhood, growing up in Ellay. Her father was a merchant, though not a particularly successful one, and her mother was a seamstress. Two of her older brothers were Guardsmen, killed in the line of duty. Her older sister married and moved to her husband’s home in Frisco – an arranged marriage that her father hoped would strengthen the family business. Both her younger sisters and her baby brother died of fever, as did her mother, when Maggie was 12.
At 16, Maggie’s father arranged a marriage for her to another merchant. Maggie resisted the idea stubbornly, enduring beatings for disobedience, until she met the young man and unexpectedly fell in love. Her only child, a boy, was born 10 months after her wedding.
Maggie enjoyed 4 years of bliss. Life was often hard, and the traveling they did to establish business was dangerous, but she’d never been happier. She truly enjoyed her husband’s company, the traveling and trading and bartering, and the lessons he gave her in fighting. Then they returned to Ellay during a particularly nasty winter, and both her husband and son caught fever and died.
All of her husband’s property reverted to Maggie’s father, and from there to other male members of her family. Overnight she lost her home, her business, and all the trade goods she’d helped to bring to Ellay. Her father tried to arrange a second marriage but Maggie flatly refused. With her characteristic stubbornness she decided to build her own trading business, and Ellay’s laws be damned.
She stole a fine stallion and rode out of town, heading for the areas where she’d traded with her husband. In Sonora, as a lone female, she quickly ran into trouble, captured by a local slaver and sold. She spent 3 years as a slave to a Mexican warlord. His negligence and cruelty caused her to miscarry twice. She waited until he’d learned to trust her. Her last night there he fell asleep after using her and she slit his throat then made her escape.
She returned to Ellay, older, wiser and tougher. Her father, in the meantime, had died, and there was no one to remember she’d stolen his best steed. She met up with an ambitious young man named Deacon Yumi, and though she now distrusted men in Deacon she saw a kindred spirit. He was determined to gain enough money to buy an old, dilapidated tavern and inn, and she convinced him to hire her as a guide through Sonora. With a strong male escort, the yearlong trading trip was a great success, and Deacon made the money he needed to buy The Drunken Dagger.
For Maggie it meant she had the beginning of the trade route she wanted. Biding her time, she continued to hire herself out as a mercenary and guide to other merchant caravans, gathering trade information and routes that she could use later for herself. She also began collecting contacts on the seedier side of life, arranging trades in illicit goods.
During one of these long caravans she met the woman Marge, another kindred spirit. Together they led the caravan farther east than Maggie had ever been, actually establishing trade with the Cajuns. Six months later an “incident” involving smuggled turquoise nearly destroyed the caravan. Maggie and Marge parted ways, rather hastily: Maggie going one way to get the merchants and their goods to safety, and Marge going the other way to throw off the local lawmen. Maggie and Marge would meet and travel together several more times, each time parting in the midst of law-type trouble.
Now 35, Maggie is back in Ellay after having become something of an adventurer… and of course, she’s in trouble again, this time with a New Yorian assassin, a group of Highland Riders, and a cache of Ancient coins. Of course, Marge is back in town.
~ Maggie Magee, trader extraordinaire
For those that might be interested, the following is a sample character sheet, using the system I designed for Sonora.
- Isobel “Maggie” Magee
- Character Class: psychic
STATISTICS
- Strength: 4 Agility: 8 Stamina: 8
- Reason: 6 Fortitude: 6 Soul: 4
- Attack Base = Agility + Reason: 14
- Defense = Agility + Reason + Hand-to-Hand skill: 16
- Speed = Agility + Fortitude: 14
- Health = Strength + Stamina + Fortitude: 18
- Power = Stamina + Reason + Soul: 18
SKILLS
Skill Level Action# Damage/Effect
- 1) Hand-to-Hand 2 16 02 pts
- 2) Small Blade 4 18 06 pts
- 3) Large Blade 2 16 10 pts
- 4) Thrown Weapons 2 16 04 pts
- 5) Bartering 4 10
- 6) Stealth 4 12
- 7) Alertness 2 08
The Action# is added to a 2d6 roll to accomplish the desired action.
POWERS
Spell/Ability Level Attack# Damage/Effect
[none]
Though Maggie doesn’t currently have any psychic talents to draw upon, she has the ability to develop them later. This is why her class is listed as psychic.
This work by Jean Headley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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