Nell Coker

Overview

Nell Coker is a 27-year-old Irish-born pickpocket and occasional fence, raised in the London rookeries and currently working the Congress of Vienna as a freelance thief. She is sharp, opportunistic, and a survivor — the same world that produced Katherine_Ward, and Nell knows it. She knew Katherine years ago as Katie Langley, before the Order recruited her, and recognises her at the masquerade not by face or mask but by the way she moves through a room: the professional assessment of exits, the positioning near doorways, the unconscious habit of a career thief.

Physical Description

Sharp-featured, lean, dark-haired, with clever brown eyes that are always cataloguing valuables. She has the kind of face that is easy to forget on purpose — neither pretty nor plain, carefully maintained at the exact threshold of unremarkability. At the masquerade, she wears a borrowed gown (slightly too fine for a servant, slightly too plain for a guest) and a simple black domino mask. She carries a reticule that is heavier than it should be.

Statistics

Skills

• Sleight of Hand 85%
• Stealth 75%
• Locksmith 50%
• Spot Hidden 65%
• Psychology 55%
• Charm 50%
• Fast Talk 70%
• Disguise 60%
• English (Native) 75%
• French 30%
• German 25%

Personality

Nell is a pragmatist. She does not steal because she enjoys it (though she does) but because it is the skill she has, and Vienna during the Congress is the richest hunting ground in Europe. She is not malicious — she targets the wealthy, avoids violence, and has a rough code: no stealing from servants, no taking things that will get someone killed, no working with people who hurt children. She is, in her own way, principled.

She is also lonely. Working alone in a foreign city where she barely speaks the language is hard, and seeing Katherine — someone from home, someone who understands — triggers a complicated mix of opportunism, nostalgia, and envy.

Instinct: Fawn, then flee. Nell’s first response to danger is to become agreeable and harmless. If that doesn’t work, she runs. She has never been in a real fight and does not intend to start.

Portrayal Note: Quick smile that doesn’t quite reach the eyes. Fidgets with her reticule. Drops into London slang when nervous, then catches herself. Watches people’s hands.

Agenda

Immediate: Blackmail Katherine for money or favours. (This will fail — the party already knows Katherine’s background — but Nell doesn’t know that.)

Short-term (after blackmail fails): Reassess. If Katherine is kind, Nell shifts to seeking an alliance — protection in exchange for information and skills. If Katherine is hostile, Nell retreats and avoids the party.

Long-term: Survive the Congress season, accumulate enough money to set up as a fence in a port city (Trieste, perhaps), and stop working the streets.

The Masquerade Beat

Nell spots Katherine_Ward across the ballroom and recognises her by movement, not face. She follows, confirms her suspicion, and approaches during a quiet moment — perhaps when Katherine has separated from the group to scout servants’ passages.

A woman in a plain black domino steps out of the crowd and falls into step beside Katherine. Her voice is London — Southwark, specifically — and pitched low.

“Mrs Ward, is it now? Very respectable. I almost didn’t know you, Katie, but nobody cases a room quite like you do. Old habits, eh?”

She smiles. It’s not unfriendly, but it’s calculating.

“I wonder what your fine friends would think if they knew where you learned to pick a lock.”

When the Blackmail Fails:

The party already knows Katherine’s background. When Katherine (or another PC) simply says “They know,” Nell is completely wrong-footed. Her leverage evaporates. The scene shifts from tense to human — and potentially comic.

Nell stares. The smile falters. She looks from Katherine to the rest of the group and back.

“They… all of them?” A pause. “Well. That’s me buggered, then.”

What Nell Can Offer (If Turned to Ally):

Nell has been working Vienna for six weeks. She knows the criminal infrastructure:

• Fences and smugglers: Who moves stolen goods, forged papers, and unusual cargo through the Leopoldstadt district
• Unusual activity near the University: She’s heard from other thieves that there are deliveries going to the University at odd hours — heavy crates, chemical smells, things that don’t look like academic supplies. The thieves avoid that area because “the men doing it look like they’d cut your throat for watching”
• Brotherhood muscle: She doesn’t know the name “Brotherhood” but she knows that someone has been hiring rough men — not regular hired thugs but specific men, the kind who don’t drink and don’t talk — for work near the Alsergrund district
• Escape routes: She knows Vienna’s back alleys, canal crossings, and rooftop paths better than most Viennese. She can get in and out of places quietly.

What Nell Cannot Do:

• Fight. She is not a combatant and will freeze or flee if violence breaks out.
• Infiltrate high society. She can pass as a servant but not as a guest.
• Be fully trusted. She is loyal to herself first. If the situation becomes genuinely dangerous, she will prioritise her own survival.

Combat Notes

Nell avoids combat entirely. If cornered, she has a folding razor in her reticule (1D3 damage, Fighting Brawl 25%) but she would rather run. Her DEX 80 and Stealth 75% make her very good at not being where trouble is.

Session Appearances

• Session 8: First appearance at the Grand Masquerade. Approaches Katherine Ward with a blackmail attempt that fails. Potential recruitment as an underworld contact.

Final Notes

Nell is designed as a mirror for Katherine_Ward — same background, same skills, different choices. Katherine was recruited by the Order and given purpose. Nell is still surviving on her wits. The interaction should feel personal and slightly bittersweet, even after the comedic blackmail failure. Nell represents the life Katherine left behind.

[!info] Keeper Only Nell works best as a recurring minor asset — someone Katherine can go to for underworld intelligence, surveillance support, or getting into places quietly. She should not become a full party member or be present at major confrontations. Her value is logistical, not dramatic, after the initial masquerade scene. If the party treats her well, she becomes loyal to Katherine specifically (not the group). If treated badly, she vanishes and may surface later as a complication.

Session 8 Update — Recruited at the Masquerade (Night of August 8, 1814)

Nell’s planned scene played out at the Grand Masquerade and broke very differently from the Keeper’s notes — in the party’s favour, and then catastrophically out of everyone’s control.

The Scene That Happened

Nell approached Katherine_Ward in a quiet corner of the ballroom and opened with the planned blackmail line (“I almost didn’t know you, Katie…”). The blackmail collapsed within ten seconds: Katherine confirmed that the rest of the party already knew her real background, Nell’s leverage evaporated, and the conversation pivoted from threat to negotiation. Nell, wrong-footed but quick, asked what Katherine wanted instead.

Katherine recruited her on the spot. The terms — fixed in play, now canonical:

• Nell becomes a working asset for the party for the duration of the Vienna chapter
• She gets payment, she gets protection, she gets to walk away clean at the end
• In return she lends her skills — Sleight of Hand 85%, Stealth 75%, knowledge of the criminal infrastructure of Leopoldstadt and the back routes of Vienna — to whatever the party needs
• Her loyalty is to Katherine personally, not to the wider party. If Katherine vouches, Nell is in. If Katherine is lost, the deal goes with her.

The recruitment was clean and Nell agreed. She is now part of the party’s Vienna operation, with all the complications that implies.

What Happened Next

Nell did not have time to reposition before the first Wächter dropped through the stained-glass window. By the close of Round 2 she was part of the corridor cluster at the entrance to the servants’ corridor — alongside Emma, Anna, and Wyndham. She is the cluster’s only career criminal and the only person there who knows how to move quickly and quietly through a building she has cased.

This is a vulnerable position for an asset who was an active stranger to the party fifteen minutes ago. Nell has no combat training, no familiarity with the people she is now expected to keep alive, and no warning that the masquerade was going to involve an inhuman creature in the ballroom. Her instinct profile is fawn, then flee — and the corridor cluster is in a position where neither response is available to her.

Whether she runs (abandoning the cluster the moment a clear escape opens), freezes (becoming a passenger the corridor cluster has to drag), or steps up (using her Stealth and street knowledge to get the cluster through Palais Lobkowitz’s service routes alive) is a Keeper choice for Round 3 of the Wächter combat. Her Luck 65 is good; her DEX 80 and Stealth 75 are excellent. A Nell who steps up is the corridor cluster’s best chance of getting Anna out alive. A Nell who runs is the corridor cluster’s first casualty of unreliable trust.

Current State (top of Session 9)

• Physically: Alive, dressed as a guest in a borrowed gown, no injuries, folding razor in her reticule
• Tactically: Part of the corridor cluster (Emma / Anna / Wyndham / Nell) at the entrance to the servants’ corridor
• Operationally: Newly recruited Vienna asset, loyalty terms set, no prior trust with anyone except Katherine
• Psychologically: Within sixty seconds she has been blackmailing a target, recruited by her, and trapped behind a creature she does not understand. Her composure is going to be Keeper-led from here.

What Nell Brings to Session 9 (Once She Survives the Night)

• The criminal map of Vienna. Nell knows fences, smugglers, escape routes, rooftop paths, canal crossings, and the back doors of Leopoldstadt. The party’s mobility through Vienna’s underbelly improves dramatically with her in it.
• The University deliveries. Nell has heard street rumours about heavy crates and chemical smells being moved into the University at odd hours by men who “would cut your throat for watching.” This is the criminal underworld’s view of the Brotherhood’s body-procurement chain — the same chain the party can also trace through the Bauer brothers. Two independent confirmations of the same logistic.
• Surveillance and stealth. Nell can watch a building for days without being noticed. Anything the party needs cased — Bäckerstrasse 14, the University side entrances, Kaunitz’s residence, the Bauer brothers’ room at the Black Bear — she can do it cheaper and quieter than any Order operative.
• A second pickpocket. If the party needs something lifted from a person they cannot openly search, Nell is the answer.

Open Questions for Session 9

• Does she stay loyal once the masquerade is over? Nell signed up for Vienna underworld work, not for fighting inhuman creatures. The first sight of the Wächter is the moment she might decide the contract was a mistake. The Keeper should let her have that doubt openly — the question of whether she stays is a player-facing decision.
• Where does she sleep tonight? She cannot be brought to Palais_Kinsky without exposing the party’s accommodation to a stranger. The Order safehouse at Thaliastraße 12 is an option but burns a one-shot asset on someone who is not yet trusted. Improvised lodging in Leopoldstadt is the most plausible answer — Nell knows where to find a bed nobody will ask questions about.
• Does she know about Adler from the underworld side? Nell has been working Vienna for six weeks. She may have heard about Adler (the Kapellmeister) from rumours circulating among prostitutes, fences, or street boys near the Conservatory. Worth asking her in Session 9.
• What does Katherine owe her? Recruitment is a contract. Nell is going to want to see the protection part of the deal honoured. The first time the party fails to protect her — or refuses to — is the moment she walks.

[!info] Keeper Only The Wächter attack happened immediately after the recruitment. Nell has had no chance to test the contract she just signed, and the first thing the contract is asking her to do is walk into a corridor with a creature ahead and a panicking aristocracy behind. Her behaviour in Round 3 should be played honestly — she is allowed to break, she is allowed to step up, she is allowed to flee at the first opening. Whichever the Keeper picks should match the player table’s read of her so far. If Nell does survive the night and remains with the party, she has earned her place; if she runs, she becomes the first lesson in the cost of recruiting strangers in the middle of a crisis.

Chapter 4, Session 1 Update — Farewell (Morning, 12 August 1814)

Nell appeared at Palais_Kinsky mid-morning, knocking softly on Katherine’s door with an apologetic expression and a trunk at her feet. She had fled the University the moment the building began to shake, and she was not ashamed of it. She explained, with admirable directness, that she preferred plain old-fashioned skullduggery, thievery, and murder, normal things, and that whatever the party had going on was several categories beyond what she was willing to sign up for.

Katherine pressed fifty gulden into her hand, wished her well, and watched her go.

Final Status

• Status: Departed the campaign permanently
• Location: Vienna, then unknown. Likely to continue working the Congress as a freelance thief.
• Loyalty resolution: The contract with Katherine is closed on amicable terms. Not a betrayal. A professional recognising her limits.
• Payment: Fifty gulden parting gift from Katherine.

[!info] Keeper Only Nell’s arc is complete. She stepped up (Session 12 reconnaissance, Session 13 tunnel assault, Session 14 lock-picking and killing), she ran when it got impossible (twice), and she left when the contract ended. The mirror for Katherine_Ward is set: same background, same skills, different threshold for what she would tolerate. Nell’s departure is the Vienna chapter’s cleanest farewell. If needed in future, she could resurface in any European port city.

Session 9 Update — Fled Independently (Night of 8 August 1814)

Nell chose flight. She was found in a state of shock near the windows during the Wächter combat and fled the scene independently, running down the alleyway away from the supernatural threats. She did not leave with the party. She did not go to Thaliastraße 12.

Current Status (dawn, 9 August 1814)

• Whereabouts: Unknown. She fled the ballroom independently. Most plausible location: back to her Vienna underworld contacts, probably the Leopoldstadt river markets — the area where she knows people who will not ask questions.
• Loyalty status: Untested. She signed a contract with Katherine and then ran when the world went sideways. Whether that is a breach or a survival instinct depends on how Katherine chooses to read it.
• Open question for Session 10: Finding Nell is Katherine’s first priority at dawn. This is the test of the loyalty contract signed at the masquerade.

Session 11 Plan — Nell Resurfaces (10 August 1814)

Katherine did not pursue Nell after the masquerade. Nell resurfaces on her own initiative, arriving at Thaliastraße 12 on the morning or afternoon of 10 August and asking for Katherine by name. She tracked the party through street-level observation and Leopoldstadt underworld gossip, which means the safehouse location is now traceable by anyone with the same criminal contacts, including the Bauer brothers.

Why She Comes Back

Two days in Leopoldstadt, listening. The criminal infrastructure near the University has gone silent. Deliveries have stopped. Guards have doubled. The men around the University are the kind who kill, and they have stopped hiring locals. The street-level fences and pickpockets who work the Alsergrund have pulled out entirely. Nell has intelligence to trade for continued protection, and she has nowhere else to go.

She also tried to lift a purse from a man near the University two nights ago and he caught her wrist. He hit her once, hard, and she ran. She saw the inside of his coat: a knife and a metal rod, heavy, with markings she did not recognise. This is a physical description of Brotherhood equipment described by someone with no frame of reference for what it is.

What She Offers

• Updated street intelligence confirming the University lockdown from the criminal underworld’s perspective
• An updated criminal map of the Alsergrund approaches — back alleys, canal crossings, rooftop paths leading to the University perimeter
• Surveillance partnership with Katherine for casing the University (two professionals, Nell’s Stealth 75% and Katherine’s training)
• Her terms are unchanged from the masquerade: payment, protection, walk away clean at the end. Her loyalty is to Katherine, not the group.

What Has Changed

Nell is not the same person who ran from the masquerade. She is thinner, she has a bruise on her jaw she does not explain, and the calculating smile has been replaced by something quieter. She does not apologise for running. She is not sorry; she is alive. But she is coming back because the contract was never just about money. It was about not being alone in a foreign city where the world has gone sideways.

[!info] Keeper Only Nell’s resurfacing is the Keeper’s mechanism for getting her back into play since Katherine has not pursued the thread. The scene should feel earned, not convenient. Nell has done two days of intelligence work on her own, and the bruise gives her a physical connection to the University’s defences. If Katherine accepts her back, the University reconnaissance becomes substantially stronger. If Katherine refuses, Nell exits the campaign cleanly.

Session 11 Update — Returned to Play (Morning, 10 August 1814)

Nell arrived at Thaliastraße 12 on the morning of 10 August, asking for “Mrs Ward.” She had tracked the party to the safehouse over two days of listening in taverns — a woman buying medical supplies, a Russian officer coming and going, a carriage at an odd hour — and recognised Katherine through a window.

Intelligence Delivered

Nell brought critical intelligence on the University lockdown from the criminal underworld’s perspective:

• The criminal underworld near the University has gone completely silent
• Deliveries have stopped
• Guards have doubled with professional killers who are not hiring locals
• Local street-level criminals (pickpockets, fencers) have pulled out entirely from the Alsergrund
• Something is happening inside the University, and the underworld knows it even if they cannot name it

The Bruise

Nell has a bruise on her jaw from an encounter with a new enforcer near the University. The man was stocky and carried a heavy metal rod at his waist, marked with symbols she did not recognise. Not pronged like a tuning fork — heavy, solid, with markings. This is Brotherhood equipment described by someone without the frame of reference to identify it.

Terms and Plans

• Terms unchanged from the masquerade: payment, protection, clean exit at the end
• Loyalty remains to Katherine personally
• Nell and Katherine plan to scout the University together that evening (night of 10 August)
• Nell offered a criminal map of the approaches, knowledge of Vienna’s back routes, and her skills as a thief

Current Status (end of Session 11)

• Location: Thaliastraße 12
• Status: Active asset, reintegrated
• Physical: Thinner than at the masquerade, bruise on jaw, quieter demeanour
• Operational: Paired with Katherine for University reconnaissance that evening

Session 12 Update — Reconnaissance and War Council (10-11 August 1814)

University Reconnaissance (Night, 10 August 1814)

Nell and Katherine conducted night reconnaissance of the University of Vienna perimeter, recorded in University_Reconnaissance_Aug_10. Nell scaled walls alongside Katherine, observed guard rotations, and helped catalogue the shift patterns of the five external guards. She noted the elevated activity level inconsistent with the stated August 15 ritual date, providing evidence of the timeline shift subsequently confirmed by Bauer’s interrogation.

This is the first time Nell has operated as a genuine field asset rather than an intelligence source. The reconnaissance confirms her Stealth 75% in a real operational context.

War Council (11 August 1814)

Nell was present at the war council at the Heuriger. Her presence confirms her full integration into the party’s operational planning.

Current Status (evening, 11 August 1814)

• Location: With the party, briefed on the assault plan
• Status: Active field asset, loyalty to Katherine confirmed through the reconnaissance
• Operational role: Reconnaissance and stealth support; not assigned to a combat element

Session 13 Update — Told the Truth; Committed; Inside the Tunnels (Evening 11 August into Pre-dawn 12 August 1814)

Katherine told Nell the truth about the creatures — that they are made from pieces and parts of human beings. Nell was shaken. She stayed committed.

Nell is now on the rescue team — descending into the Roman tunnels beneath the University with Adrien, Katherine, and Ferrante — heading toward Caroline Hartley’s last known location.

Current Status (pre-dawn, 12 August 1814)

• Location: Inside the University, Roman tunnels, rescue team
• Status: Committed; shaken but present
• Loyalty: To Katherine, confirmed under pressure — told the worst truth and stayed anyway

Session 14 Update — Theatre Assault; Fled During Climax (Pre-dawn, 12 August 1814)

Nell accompanied the rescue team through the Roman tunnels to the Sealed_Anatomical_Theatre.

Actions During the Assault

• Picked the lock on the heavy oak door leading to the theatre’s west wall — the rescue team’s entry point. Locksmith 50% put to operational use under pressure.
• Fired a precise pistol shot that killed one of the ambushing students who attacked the breach team as they entered. This is the first time Nell has killed anyone in canon.
• Fled the scene when the building began to shake during the ritual’s climax. The shaking, the sound, the horror inside the theatre — Nell’s instinct profile held true. Fawn, then flee.

Current Status (dawn, 12 August 1814)

• Status: Alive; whereabouts unknown
• Location: Fled the University during the assault’s climax. Last seen running. Has not returned to Thaliastraße 12 or made contact with Katherine.
• Loyalty: The contract with Katherine is technically still active. Whether Nell’s flight constitutes a breach depends on how Katherine reads it — the same question that arose after the masquerade, now for the second time.

[!info] Keeper Only Nell’s pattern is established: she steps up, she contributes, and when the world turns impossible she runs. She picked the lock, she shot a man dead, and then she bolted. The question for the Keeper is whether Nell resurfaces again as she did after the masquerade — thinner, quieter, with intelligence to trade — or whether this is the break. Two flights in five days is either a survival instinct or a fundamental limit. If the campaign moves to Calcutta, the question becomes whether Nell follows Katherine that far, or whether Vienna is where the contract ends.

Relationships

• Knows Katherine Ward — Former associate from the London rookeries; knew Katherine as Katie Langley
• Participated in University Reconnaissance Aug 10 — Conducted night reconnaissance of the University with Katherine on 10 August; scaled walls, observed guard rotations, noted the timeline shift