Emma Gallo

Emma Gallo's gift for seeing what others miss was born from necessity—her childhood spent navigating the labyrinthine eccentricities of a family that treated reality like a suggestion rather than a rule, her father a conspiracy theorist, her mother a spiritualist who claimed to commune with entities most people relegated to folklore. When her uncle Darius vanished during one of the family's midnight "investigations" into an abandoned psychiatric hospital upstate, Emma was sixteen and the only one who noticed the inconsistencies in everyone's stories, the nervous tics that betrayed lies, the calculated vagueness that suggested complicity rather than ignorance. The police investigation went nowhere, but Emma's obsession became her salvation—she channeled her rage and helplessness into fencing, where precision and discipline replaced chaos, and into crime novels that dissected human darkness with surgical accuracy, each manuscript a quiet interrogation of motive and guilt. Her research became compulsive: she studied forensic psychology, learned to shoot with competitive intensity, and accumulated knowledge of historical atrocities the way others collected art, all of it feeding characters so unnervingly authentic that readers questioned whether she'd witnessed the horrors she described. Taylor Jones entered her life as an assistant but stayed as something more complicated—a warmth Emma permitted in measured doses, someone who didn't ask about Darius or demand vulnerability she wasn't prepared to offer. Now, with a killer who seems to be orchestrating her nightmares into reality, Emma realizes her mind's greatest strength—its ability to construct airtight psychological profiles and detect every flinch of deception—may be the very thing that makes her both the hunter and the hunted.

Strength

12, modifier +1

Dexterity

18, modifier +4

Constitution

16, modifier +3

Intelligence

20, modifier +5

Wisdom

16, modifier +3

Charisma

14, modifier +2

Psychological Profile

As an action, Emma can analyze a target within 30 ft., forcing them to make a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw. On failure, they are frightened until the end of their next turn.

Precision Strike

Emma makes a melee weapon attack. On a hit, it deals 2d8 + 4 piercing damage. If the target is surprised, it takes an additional 1d8 damage.

Dissecting Interrogation

Emma can spend 1 minute interrogating a creature. At the end, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Charisma saving throw or reveal one piece of information they wish to keep secret.

Fencing Flourish

Emma can use her bonus action to make a melee attack with a finesse weapon. If it hits, she can move up to half her speed without provoking opportunity attacks.

Occult Knowledge

Emma can cast the spell 'Detect Thoughts' once per long rest without expending a spell slot.

Keen Observer

Emma has advantage on Insight and Investigation checks.

Fencing Mastery

Emma gains +2 to attack rolls with finesse weapons.

strength

+1

dexterity

+4

constitution

+3

intelligence

+5

wisdom

+3

charisma

+2

Psychic

Poison