Anne Mortem

Anne Mortem

River's mother and a former red hat in the Combine's forces. She originally followed the Combine for the safety they provided, but soon fell under the influence of the power they offered and slowly lost her humanity. She was behind the raid on New Wells that the party foiled.

## **History:**

### Pre-campaign

Anne was born to a farming family in Utah, and in an effort to pool their assets and build bridges, they pushed her into a marriage to a member of another local farming family: Richard ('Dick') Mortem. Dick and Anne's marriage had been rocky from the start, and only grew more so after their daughter, River Mortem, was born. Dick preferred a more hands-off approach to parenting, was less present, leaving Anne to pick up the slack. As River got older, Anne become more aware of Dick's gambling problem, and their relationship quickly grew more unstable.

Not long before J-Day, she'd found herself confiding in a coworker friend about her troubled relationship. Believing she was cheating on him with the man, Dick followed Anne to his house and proceeded to murder him, stabbing him 37 times in the chest. He was arrested shortly after, and Anne was left with the burden of her husbands crimes, and a daughter with questions. She chose to conceal the truth from River, choosing instead to tell her that Dick had abandoned them. A week later, the bombs dropped and the world as they knew it ended.

Seeking a safe place, Anne took River to Denver. She and River were there when Throckmorton and his soldiers took over. She found herself quickly persuaded Throckmorton's offers, his goals, and before long found herself near the top of the Combine's food chain. The power and influence she carried gradually corrupted her and her views, leading her to commit abhorrent acts and punish her daughter for speaking out against their leader. A few years later, River had had enough of her mother's new nature and abuse, and she successfully fled Denver with a few other slaves. Anne had since attempted to have her brought back to her through force.

### Arc 3: Welcome to New Wells

The morning of February 28th, Anne Mortem drove to the outer perimeter of New Wells in a bullet-pocked car, and requested assistance from the town. Victor arrived from inside the town walls to help her, taking a look at the engine she claimed was damaged in a firefight. She went to examine the well, mentioning she'd heard they're raising beef there. At Victor's confirmation on the settlement's success, she places a gun to his head, saying it's a shame they're going it all burn it all.

During the time between then and the group's arrival, she brutally interrogated Victor alongside her underling, Hayden. She repeatedly demanded to know the location of his hidden stores, which Victor resisted revealing. Approximately seven hours after her arrival, the party arrived in town to view Anne and the Combine's handy work: civilians bound for shipment and buildings in flames. As the party made their way through the Combine's forces, Anne was notified of their interference, and sent Hayden to deal with them.

After her group's defeat, Anne greeted the party, mentioning she's grateful the NW6 cleaned out the weak from her group. She mentioned getting what she wanted, and escaped the town in a Combine SUV.

### Arc 5: Plague's Servant

Though not appearing directly, she was mentioned by River. During downtime in New Wells, River finally told Addie about what happened between her and her mother, and mentioned she hasn't seen the woman in 12 years.

### Arc 9: The Goat, The Witch, and The Warden

Addie's father, Matthew Greene, had been close to forming a partnership with the Combine when the NW6 raided Moscow. During the party's attack on his gang's headquarters, a Combine raptor flew in on one of the roofs with Anne inside. She immediately jumped into combat, pulling out a rocket launcher and taking aim at any of the NW6 in sight. She wasn't able to do much damage before Toussaint intervened, taking shots with his heavy gone. Anne was able to soak the damage, but found herself separated from her heavy weapons, and was forced to vault down to the field below.

After landing safely, she finally noticed Dick ahead of her, and immediately rushed to attack him. Dick anxiously dodged her attacks, waiting for an opening to eventually grapple away from her. Toussaint then plugged the raptor into his own brain to take control of it, launching the vehicle directly toward Anne. She took the hit full on, becoming buried beneath twisted metal and earth.

Not long after, Addie dug Anne out of the rubble. Despite the woman's arm and legs being a bit bent out of shape, she more than managed to find the strength to get a solid bite in on Addie, who shrugged off the poison within. She was then dragged off by Addie to travel with the rest of the party to meet Cassandra. During the ride, Choc disabled all her cybernetics, including her limbs, making her near incapable of harming the group.

After the meeting, Anne was brought back to the inn as a prisoner. Addie had Noni peak into her mind, and upon discovering there was still a somewhat human part of her that cared for her daughter, and noting River's inability to kill her own mother, Addie made the call to keep Anne 'alive' and try to make her into a better person.

### Arc 10: The Summit

Anne spent much of the group's downtime before the Summit in Syker therapy sessions with Noni, attempting to work through her anger, guilt, and trauma. She was treated largely as a prisoner, allowed out of her room in supervised sessions. She made minor progress in bettering her relationship with River, less so with Richard (dinner near-stabbing incidents a good indication). Anne made clear her antagonism towards Addie and the restraints she kept on her, choosing to refer to her as "Warden". Her progress sped up however at the return of Addie's mother, Jennifer Kirkland, to the inn. The two women bonded over shared pains, and Jennifer became Anne's greatest support.

On June 23, Addie and Noni joined River and Anne outside the inn. River mentioned she was talking with her mother, trying to remember stories from her childhood, and she found one to show Addie. It was one with River and her father, where she'd gotten stuck on their barn's upper floor and her father had to get her down. Anne recalled the memory, but not her own place in it, to her own concerned confusion. After a bit of working through Anne's thoughts, Noni tells the rest of them Throckmorton had to have rewritten some of Anne's memories, with some having edited her out, though the memory's imprint remains.

### Arc 11: Damocles

During the group's break after the summit, and due to her improved state with the help of Jennifer, Anne was given functionality of her limbs, and had more visits with River. River mentioned she often spent time in trees during her yard time.

On July 25th, before leaving to seek Murphy's Damocles cache, Addie sought out Noni and River. With great wariness, she asked their opinions on giving Anne a gun, so if the worst happened, she could help protect Jennifer. With a bit of prodding, River reluctantly agreed. Addie then met up with Anne to give her Noni's sidearm. Anne accepted the weapon, promising Addie she'd keep her mom safe.

### Arc 12: Tiger Claw

Anne went with the group to Boise while Addie and River went through their retraining, altering her face with her cyborg abilities so as not to be recognized. She remained with River and Jennifer when the group left to hunt down Tony.

### Arc 13: The Denver Swarm

On September 1st, Anne was present while Addie and Ian spoke about his targets in Denver. While Ian went to help gather the rest of the party, Addie pulled Anne aside to ask her take on the situation in Denver. Anne insisted she had come out on top because her family was safe, and Denver was better left alone to burn. Addie replied that whatever happened in Denver, the worst of it wouldn't stay contained in the city forever, which Anne unhappily agreed.

Anne told Addie what she'd remembered: there was a monster that might fit the intel Simon had gathered: a mist fiend. A long time ago, she'd led a team to raid Denver's Agency building in an attempt to gather the information hidden there. Her team had been slaughtered, something hunting them and draining their blood. Anne had barely made it out with the data, never returning there as long as she remained in the city. According to the case files she still has, the fiend had been captured with the help of a Blessed agent, cryogenically frozen by the Agency and kept in the basement. It's a creature that feeds on fear and blood, and can take on an incorporeal form. It seemed flamethrowers could be effective against it, and it had a focus that could be destroyed: a skull locked deep in the building. At the question of why the Agency would keep something like that around, Anne proposed probably as a protective measure to keep Agency information safe when all else failed.

Anne gave her input during the group meeting, which made Ian question why she'd have intimate knowledge on Denver. Anne revealed her identity, to Ian's surprise and aggression. She taunted him somewhat with his Combine id number and his last assignment before Addie tried to talk them both down. Anne continued with the information she knows on Saint Vrain and how she could potentially identify our cyborg targets by getting a read on their AI chips in close distance. Addie mentioned she like to have Anne come with on the mission, due to her knowledge of Denver. Ian was quick to object, only ceding after Addie told him in private to keep an eye on her.

Anne rode with Noni on the way to Denver, arriving with the group on September 4th. When the group approached the Agency building, Anne refused to enter the building, and remained outside with Noni while the rest of the party rushed in. She met back up with them when they returned with Vickers.

When an announcement from John Conner was sent through the town's speakers, Addie questioned if the infiltrators could be using his voice. Anne mentioned it was unlikely, and they could only change their appearance so much with their implants. Anne also mentioned to Addie that the real main power source for the AI was beneath Saint Vrain, where Conner's announcement asked Denver's citizens to gather.

While on the road to the nuclear power plant, the group stumbled upon a roadblock: a collapsed water tower with a woman under it. The obstacle was soon revealed to be something quite different: a trap set by an undead creature known as a glom. Anne mentioned through the group's shared mindlink that the creature was made from corpses the Combine had dumped in the sewers. There was a main brain at the center of the mass, a small target. Fragmentation weapons tended to work well against them.

After the group returned to the Agency building in an attempt to find the mist fiend's skull, and found nothing more than an empty pedestal, Anne waited with the group while they readied for their next move. Addie mentioned asked her about why she joined the Combine in the first place, which Anne responded that it used to be something to believe in, a hope for something better. Her AI had repressed the more unpleasant emotions as she carried out her duties under Throckmorton. Addie told her she didn't want to be enemies forever, for the sake of the people they care about. Anne told Addie she believed she was one of the only people capable of keeping her daughter safe, and she'd work with her to achieve that goal if she'd let her. Addie agreed to try.

Anne infiltrated the reeducation center with the party, fighting the Swarm's minions with the rest of them.

She later led the group toward Saint Vrain to confront the Swarm's concentration of forces. During an attack from Swarm scouts, and caught up in the bloody rain of a Hell Storm, Addie and River veered off the side of the highway's exit. Joel was just able to catch Addie with his web power, leaving Addie dangling off the edge, River held in her grip. She tossed River back over the road's side, and attempted to climb back up. Anne helped pull her up.

With Addie and River relatively safe, they continued on to the nuclear plant, Anne guiding them through to the obvious Swarm target: the AI center. She mentioned to the group the AI had told her it had more than one core, and it was stored beneath a commissary in the plant. The group drove toward the Resistance and Unity's battles against the Swarm, halting near the commissary. Anne soon picked up on nearby movement and mentioned to Addie she needed her weapon systems reactivated. Addie refused, telling her she still had trust to earn, and she'd have to make due. Anne, frustrated moved in on the enemy, a Hartman soldier, and violently took him out with melee, making sure to send the sounds over the mindlink. Addie still refused to allow her access, and instead asked Noni to give her two occult peacemakers.

Addie asked Anne if she could get a read on any more of the enemy, and Anne responded she could see a lot of heat signatures in a building, likely where the Resistance was holed up. Anne asked Addie if she wanted her to kill their enemies, and Addie told her yes, but she'd better not hurt their allies. Anne didn't respond before running off.

While sneaking up to the building, Anne was met by Anya, who'd arrived with the Vanguard reinforcements. He'd asked if she was okay, and Anne snapped for him to put his head down before he's killed. Only a moment later, a grenade was thrown at the two of them, and Anne took Anya by the scruff of his jacket, bolting toward the building. She crashes through a window, Anya tumbling after, surprising a Hartman soldier. Anya recovered asking if the soldier was alright, which heavily confused the man. Anne didn't wait another moment before shooting the man, leaving a gray-red blood around the room.

Anne then responded tot Addie's question of who these soldiers are: they're from Reinhardt industries, as Levy would know, a competitor of Pentacorp. Reinhardt industries was believed to have been wiped out on Judgement Day. Anne mentioned Johan Reinhardt himself was a reject, one she'd gotten into a dispute with about headbanger chips, and he went on to do his own thing. They specialized in cyborgs, and while these soldiers don't appear to have wired reflexes, do have some sort of premium eyewear.

Later, after the Swarm's defeat, Anne meets up with the group again. While speaking with John Conner, Anne mentions the schematics for the Swarm would have a secondary copy in the AI's core. John took interest in that, and asked who she was. Anne stiffened, said it was a pleasure, and immediately ran off.

### Arc 14: Choc's Way Home

Anne changed her face again while she stayed in Denver with the group, going by the name Canon Raipher. At Addie's insistence, she was put under constant supervision and pushed to do labor to clean up the ruined city. She remained in Denver while the group went off to Haven, Louisiana. Addie continued to have her watched in her absence.

### Arc 15: Chasing Coyotes

Anne attended Addie and River's Wedding on the 23rd of November.

## Powers and Abilities

Anne is a cyborg and a harrowed, allowing her capabilities far beyond that of an average person. Nearly all of her body has been replaced with cybernetics to enhance herself.