Safia

Summary

Safia is a 14-year-old shapeshifter controlled by Erin in the campaign. During Session 3, Erin revised Safia's age down from 18 to make her more naive and sheltered, ensuring she has things to learn from the other party members. Safia comes from a technologically advanced background where she has lived "primarily in technology," making her inexperienced with the real world—she needs the other party members to teach her basic things like how to eat food that isn't Sour Patch Kids. Where she's from, people "have a relationship with animals where we can actually become them just for short periods of time," and her society recognized pigs as intelligent beings with designated areas to roam freely in "pig town." She comes from a harsh environment she describes as "the blasted wasteland," which has accustomed her to difficult conditions. Described as "pretty young," she nevertheless carries significant trauma from her past experiences with collectors who rounded up Genetic Mutants, creating lasting fear of people wearing face-covering clothing. She also carries a malfunctioning AI implant that sends her confusing messages, which colors her perspective on technology and makes her wonder whether others' experiences—like Vasso's connection to the Earth Mother—might have similar technological explanations. Her cautious nature stems from her time in The Waste, where survival required constant vigilance and distrust of strangers.

Safia possesses the ability to shapeshift into various animal forms for short periods, most notably a giant bat, a mole, and a rat, alongside her ability to converse with animals across species barriers. She also has an AI implant that allows her to interface with technology, displaying holographic screens, analyzing digital systems, and hacking into technological devices like Nick Silver's Staff. In Session 2, she investigated the disappearance of Dunko Guzman's book, using keen observational skills and animal communication to gather intelligence and ultimately leading the party into the Underground Cavern Beneath Rex Tree. In Session 3, she made the critical decision to reveal her shapeshifting abilities to save the party, dramatically transforming from bat to human form in front of her companions for the first time. In Session 4, she plays a crucial role in resolving the encounter with The Frozen Blob, using her druidic abilities and technological interface to communicate with and calm the frightened creature. She also serves as the party's provisioner, managing supplies and navigation for their journey to New Smoke. In Session 5, she demonstrates both her scientific mindset—conducting experiments with Goober and attempting to collect samples from the Gordian—and her cautious tactical nature, consistently advocating for retreat when situations become dangerous. In Session 6, she deepens her technological communion with Goober and grows increasingly distressed by her companions' tendency toward violence, confronting them directly about their pattern of "rushing off and attacking people." In Session 9, she provides tactical insights during the party's planning against The Guards, offers unwavering emotional support to her companions, and displays her characteristic concern for animal welfare, while her medical AI continues to cause distress when triggered by certain words.

Throughout the campaign, Safia demonstrates tactical thinking, investigative competence, and strong ethical concerns—from her discomfort with the pig rental system at Rex Tree to her worry about the party's treatment of the Sniff Lord and her emotional distress over violence against Nick Silver. Despite her youth, she shows sharp financial instincts and a protective nature toward both people and animals. She develops strong emotional attachments to non-human entities like Goober, recognizing him as "such a w[hole being]" deserving of respect and consideration.

Appearance & Equipment

Possesses night vision capabilities when in bat form
Carries a knife in a sheath (discovered in the hidden wall compartment)
Has access to the bag of coins containing approximately 250 coins (gold, silver, copper, and shinier silver)

Technological halberd: Acquired from Big Grimbo, featuring visible circuitry running through it; the AI companion can identify the technological components though their specific function remains unknown
Dust hats: Devices capable of causing diversions, which Safia suggests using tactically
Ear Cuff Communication Device: Wears the silver ear cuff taken from an unconscious guard, allowing her to monitor Thunderhog Leader communications by interfacing with it through her AI implant
Burnt Matches: Uses as improvised makeup tools to create disguises for allies

Personality & Abilities

Core Abilities:

Animal Communication: Can converse with animals, including the Pigs
Shapeshift Move: Can transform into various animal forms, including a large bat (bigger than Monster the cat)
Night Vision: Possesses enhanced vision in darkness when transformed
Echolocation: Uses bat-form echolocation to map underground spaces

Ability Scores & Mechanics:

Charisma: +1
Wisdom: 2
During Session 2, rolled a 7 on shapeshift (granting 2 hold), and later rolled a 10 (granting 3 hold)

Special Features:

Some kind of AI or technological component that can automatically scan and count objects (scanned the 250 coins in the bag)

Personality Traits:

Demonstrates keen observational skills, successfully using Discern Realities
Shows cultural sensitivity regarding animal treatment
Exhibits caution about revealing shapeshifting abilities to companions
Displays courtesy and consideration (suggesting cleaning Dunko Guzman's ransacked apartment)
Concerned about social consequences of decisions (worries about smoothing things over with Sucks after freeing the pigs)

Anti-colonial awareness: Expresses concern about "being a little bit colonial here by just barging in" when considering intervention in local power structures, showing evolution in ethical thinking beyond simple opposition to violence
Bond mechanic: Demonstrates sufficient bond with Vasso to provide mechanical aid (2d6 plus bond) during confrontations
Shapeshifting Limitations: Maintaining rat form requires hold — using the last hold causes her to transform back to human form. Physical stress can force a transformation mid-shift, dealing 2 damage.
Communion of Whispers: Supernatural ability that allows her to connect with spirits and technology, used in conjunction with her AI implant to interface with the ear cuff communication device
High Dexterity: Successfully hides from approaching guards with an 11 roll

History

Session 2

Safia begins the session investigating Dunko Guzman's disappearance, choosing to remain outside the apartment at Pinecone Restaurant and Spa to communicate with the Pigs while the rest of the party investigates inside. Safia explains the decision: "I was just going to say that maybe I should stay here with the pigs, and maybe I can learn a little bit more from them." Having already bonded with Lutro during a test drive, Safia seeks additional information from the animals.

During the investigation, Safia negotiates with Mayor, a pig, to learn details about Dunko Guzman's smuggling operation. Safia gives Mayor an acorn as thanks for the information. When the party regroups, Safia joins them in examining Dunko Guzman's ransacked apartment. Safia questions the timing of their return, noting "I'm pretty sure he's getting a massage right now," and suggests showing consideration: "I think what might be more considerate than a receipt would be cleaning up this total" mess.

Using investigative skills, Safia successfully employs Discern Realities to discover a hidden wall compartment containing the bag of coins and a knife in a sheath. Safia also identifies a distinctive boot print made with light yellow mud, suggesting someone entered through the window. At Rex Tree, Safia demonstrates observational acuity, looking up the trunk and examining the ground. "Guys, I think there's like an opening over here or some. I don't know, like, look at these acorns on the ground, how they've been moved around," Safia observes. Noticing unusual bark patterns, Safia begins pressing on the section and running hands along it, ultimately discovering the hidden entrance beneath the tree.

When the party descends into the tunnel system and becomes trapped, Safia transforms into bat form to scout ahead. Rolling a 7 on the Shapeshift Move grants 2 hold. Safia demonstrates concern about revealing this ability, attempting to transform in the dark away from torchlight. Using echolocation, Safia maps the tunnel system, discovering it descends 20-30 feet and opens into a large cavern with multiple branching tunnels. Later, when the Masked Cultists are encountered, Safia transforms back into bat form (rolling a 10 for 3 hold) and clings to the cavern ceiling far above the other party members, observing while remaining hidden from the cultists. Throughout the session, tension exists within the party because Safia previously freed the test-drive pigs, including the group's beloved companions, creating friction particularly with Sucks.

Session 3

Safia began the session positioned on the cavern ceiling in bat form, observing as cultists threw her party members behind the portcullis. She remained hidden near the altar, watching without intervening until the robed figure with dog mask approached her location. Using Discern Realities, she assessed what the robed figures were doing and evaluated the tactical situation unfolding below.

Recognizing the escalating danger to her companions, Safia made the critical decision to reveal her closely-guarded secret. She swooped down from the ceiling as a giant bat, tore the mask off a cultist, and transformed back to human form in front of the shocked party — the first time any of them had witnessed her shapeshifting ability. As she transformed in her characteristic Animorph-style corkscrew motion, arms and legs sprouting from her bat body, she declared: "You guys go. And I'm free as a bat." The dramatic display scattered the cultists and demonstrated both her tactical thinking and her willingness to sacrifice her secret to protect her friends.

While her companions remained trapped behind the portcullis, Safia worked methodically to free them. She discovered a series of three carved stone buttons on the cavern wall using Discern Realities — one of which the dog-masked cultist had used to close the gate, though she couldn't recall which. She tested the portcullis for structural weaknesses by hammering it with her shalala, and when her friends became distracted, she splashed water through the bars from a chalice, calling out: "Hey guys, I gotta focus." She successfully solved the portcullis buttons puzzle to open the gate, though she inadvertently sealed the door at the top of the tree in the process. When questioned about her transformation, she explained: "So where I'm from, we have a relationship with animals where we can actually become them just for short periods of time."

After encountering the Sniff Lord, Safia expressed ethical concerns about the party's treatment of their captive, demonstrating her moral compass even under pressure. She clarified misunderstandings with Katniss about the incident and expressed confidence in navigating the caverns beneath the Rex Tree: "Well, truth be told, I'm pretty sure that we can find our way out of here. Like they would have way more than one. This is a network. They wouldn't have just one entryway." When the party discovered the dog mask, Safia instantly put it on her face to test its properties, then advised: "Guys, A, I think we better keep this mask as one of our treasures. And B, I wonder if we go down this tunnel, if we can find a way out. It smells like fresh air." She recognized the purple sludge as toxic, warning: "I kind of think we shouldn't hang out here. Like, I think this is toxic. This is what was happening to all the fish in my homeland. They're just dropping into the toxic waste." Her background in technology became more apparent during these discussions. She earned experience points (XP) by fulfilling her alignment to "eliminate an unnatural menace" through sharing information about the neck button, and resolved one of her bonds by teaching Vasso how to open a tree — what she described as "a secret rite of the land."

Session 4

Safia's inexperience with negotiation becomes apparent during the party's initial encounter with the goo, where she watches in confusion, wondering "what the hell are they" doing. The situation becomes traumatic when Sucks covers his face with his zip-up hoodie, triggering memories of collectors who rounded up Genetic Mutants wearing similar face-covering clothing. She backs into a corner during this exchange, frightened by the association. Despite her discomfort with negotiation, she demonstrates sharp financial acumen, quickly calculating that "12 coins each is really not going to get us anywhere" and advocating for better compensation.

In Rex Tree, Safia spends all her remaining money purchasing Pipe Leaf for 10 coins from a Teenage Dealer, commenting that "pipe leaf is really expensive in this town." While intoxicated, she volunteers to navigate and manage provisions for the journey to New Smoke, successfully rolling an 11 with her +2 wisdom modifier. Despite being notably high, she creates an elaborate, personalized meal for the party featuring custom-decorated bowls: a zippered bowl for Sucks Benedict, a bowl with baby shoes for Vasso, and a bowl with catnip for Cat. Each bowl contains popcorn mixed with Reese's peanut butter cups, with decorative shoes as garnish. The meal is so well-prepared that it grants everyone a plus one forward to their next roll.

When the party encounters The Frozen Blob, Safia uses her AI implant to interface with Thunk, observing that the entity remains in "assessment mode." She successfully employs Communion of Whispers to connect with the blob, inquiring about its source coding and programs. Through her implant, she determines "this blob wants to avoid what it sees as surrounding" and attempts to reassure it, sending the message: "We are not Daedrics. Like, we just want to talk to you. Here's some more popcorn." In The Misty Forest, she uses the Sniff Lord's Dog Mask to track the creature's trail through the fog, appreciating the mask's user interface design that creates "nice little followable trails" rather than overwhelming the display. She shares knowledge about refrigeration technology gone wrong, noting she's "seen this kind of thing happen" when "people think they can harness, like, the power of refrigeration to keep the pumpkins cold or whatever. And it just goes haywire."

During the end-of-session alignment check, Safia receives experience for eliminating an unnatural menace by calming and befriending The Frozen Blob rather than destroying it. True to form, she continues her pattern of liberating animals, staying back to free the pigs from their harnesses rather than letting them chew through on their own, prompting the GM to comment: "Sepia. Can't stop freeing these pigs."

Session 5

Early in the journey, Safia took on the role of managing provisions and chose to spend time with Goober, conducting gentle experiments to understand the creature's behavior. She picked flowers that "smell really nice and look really nice" to test whether positive stimuli made it feel more relaxed, then fed it a fuzzy peach. Her analytical mind drew connections to the pre-apocalypse technology she knew from the city, theorizing that Goober might be related to the food doosers—holographic food replicators that existed before the blasted wasteland. This insight suggested to her that the creature might function as a biological 3D printer.

During the journey, Safia engaged Vasso in conversation about his religious experiences, asking "What do you. How do you hear your God?" Her malfunctioning implant, which sends her confusing messages, made her wonder whether Vasso might have a similar technological explanation for hearing the Earth Mother. This question revealed both her scientific skepticism and her genuine curiosity about her companion's experiences.

When the party encountered the Pumpkin Creature, Safia immediately advocated for retreat, telling the group "Guys, I think we should get out of here. This feels really creepy." She remained unmoved by Cat's arguments about potential profit from harvesting pumpkins, insisting "let's go. You guys forget this. We have. We have what we need." Despite her preference for withdrawal, Safia contributed tactically to the combat. She helped coordinate a plan to use hoodies as nets to catch thrown pumpkins, fashioning the hoods around her shalaya to create a robust scooping net. She climbed to the top of the cart and extended a hand to help Cat up to a better vantage point for shooting, successfully aiding Cat's called shot.

After the battle with the Gordian, Safia immediately moved to collect samples of the creature's goo using the small containers she carries, attempting to harvest specimens before Sucks's fire destroyed everything. She deliberately got in the way of splattered goo, even licking her wrist to see if contact with it would allow her to search her AI for information about what it was. Unfortunately, all usable goo had been burned or smashed into the dirt. When Sucks complained about the fire destroying the samples, Safia responded pointedly: "You should have told me before I lit a fire that you wanted to get stuff out of." Despite this setback, she successfully scavenged approximately 200 coins worth of pumpkin seeds from the battlefield. After the fight, she complimented the group: "I just want to say I did not know you guys had this kind of bite in you. This was amazing to watch."

Episode: "Session 6"

Safia began the session resting in the pig cart, emerging to observe the chaotic aftermath of the lying demonstration during the Sweater Entrapment Incident. She found the group "entangled" in a "petal strewn" mess and commented, "oh, I didn't know we were doing charades." Recognizing the situation as another instance of her companions "just being idiots," she suggested to Vasso that they "go talk to the pigs" instead. During the group's time in the pumpkin patch, Safia devoted herself to investigating Goober's internal systems using her technological interface. Using her implant's ctrl+f function to search her fragmented word files, she looked up the meaning of "japery" and shouted the definition at Vasso. More significantly, she discovered a folder in Goober's system labeled "configurations" containing numbered files. Rolling a lore check (intelligence-based, result of 8), she systematically explored these files and discovered multiple transformation forms stored in a "storage" folder, including a chariot form, a hovering carpet capable of flight, various geometric shapes, and a Pac-Man ghost form resembling a trash can. She also discovered a crucial limitation: while Goober can change shape, he cannot change his color. This exploration sparked both practical and emotional responses—she became "quite struck by Goober's willingness" to take different shapes, developing "a heart for Goober." The technical work proved nostalgic, reminding her of "the olden days," and she proposed to the group: "what would you guys think if I just kind of go sit in the corner and try to figure out some of what is going on with these files?"

When The Wandering Traveler approached, Safia's survival instincts took over. She remained hidden under the cart, only emerging "just with her head, like, just barely." She whispered urgent warnings—"don't let him cut the sweaters. What if they're the thing?"—and physically grabbed Sucks when he tried to bolt toward the stranger. After he kicked free, she failed her interfere roll but demonstrated leadership by directing Cat to help move and free Sucks. She asked the traveler pointed questions about the situation in New Smoke, maintaining her characteristic caution around strangers. The encounter with Nick Silver proved pivotal for her technical abilities. After Nick froze the party with his staff, Felix Thoughtomation suggested Safia could hack it. She successfully rolled a 10 and discovered that Nick's staff operates through nanite swarms that alter air molecule density, similar to how Goober functions. Her social interaction programs detected Nick's experience at deception.

The violent confrontation left Safia emotionally distressed. She whispered to Sucks, "I don't think we can let this guy go," but after the incident concluded, she "feels bad about everything" and told the group to "just let him go." She then confronted her companions about their pattern of violence: "Look, guys, I think. I think we are. We have a problem. Which is Both of you keep rushing off and attacking people." Seeking to decompress, she proposed a meditation session with Vasso: "Let's sit down. Let's just sit. Sit down right on the ground. And you know, I don't know, like, feel the earth vibrations or something. Let's listen to the birds. Let's get in tune with something that isn't debt, you know, killing each other." However, when they could see the edge of The Waste from their position, it created "a sinking feeling" in her, as the Waste remained "not a very fun place for Safiya to be near."

Episode: "Session 7"

Safia led the party's infiltration planning for New Smoke, proposing practical strategies like sedating guards with drugged pies and selling food to people in the gate line to gather intelligence. When Nick Silver mentioned the canal entrance, she expressed skepticism, stating "Silver was setting us a trap." She grew increasingly frustrated with Sucks Benedict's antics, physically turning away "so she's not looking at sex because she can't stop rolling her eyes."

Volunteering to scout ahead, Safia transformed into a pigeon for aerial reconnaissance, though the transformation proved difficult after eating fuzzy peaches beforehand. As a pigeon, she began producing human coughs—"A human cough coming out of a bird"—which made New Smoke Guards believe she was sick or had emphysema. Flying over the walls, she warned her companions: "Guys, guys, this looks like a pretty rough and tumble town" and "if we get caught with this stuff, we are, we're getting locked up." She was deeply disturbed by the guards' brutal treatment of women, noting "this kind of guy is not like, you know, the bruteness and the objectifying women. She's just like. She can't even handle it." Her reconnaissance revealed the Market District, foundries, scrap piles, and the Canal Entrance, though she warned the party that the inhabitants were "Real living in the garbage. Guys, this, this does not feel like a friendly town."

Coordinating from high vantage points, Safia signaled the party's entry by flapping "her wings three times. Like, in a weird way" after observing the guards complete their patrol. She then chose to continue reconnaissance flights rather than enter the Underground Drainage System with her companions, saying "hopefully I'll see you guys later." At the New Smoke Market, she investigated the Pine Cone Man, settling on his shoulder and nuzzling his chest while succumbing to the compulsion to pick up pine cones. However, when he began dragging Sucks away for thievery, Safia impulsively attacked him, flying at his face and dealing 4 damage despite having just shown him affection. She took 2 damage in return and nearly lost her transformation. Erin reflected that this pattern—attacking Nick Silver, the Pine Cone Man, and expecting freed pigs to be grateful—revealed that "Safia is really bad at judging who's a friend and who's a foe," comparing her to "one of those rescue dogs that is really nice, and then all of a sudden they'll bite you."

After the conflict, Safia discovered a manhole cover in the merchant's tent. When Sucks and Vasso's loud singing from below drew attention, she performed an injured bird routine to distract the Pine Cone Man, successfully drawing him away but getting captured and placed on his shoulder again. Monster the kitten attempted to attack her pigeon form but could not reach her in the tent rafters.

Episode: "Session 8"

At the New Smoke Aftermarket, Safia begins by purchasing candy from a market stall with self-serve bins where customers fill their own bags. Browsing the weapons stalls, Safia discovers a halberd with visible circuitry running through it. The AI companion recognizes the technological components, though their specific function remains unknown. Safia negotiates with the vendor Big Grimbo, initially bargaining the 9-coin price down to 8 coins, then proposing a creative compromise: "If you can throw some weed in, it's a deal." The final agreement settles at 9 coins plus a bag of weed, and Safia acquires the technological halberd.

Later, accompanying Vasso to the food court area, Safia witnesses New Smoke Guards extorting the Meat Party Vendor. The scene triggers immediate recognition—"Those look like bullies. I know what bullies look like"—but also surfaces deep ambivalence about intervention. Safia expresses concern about "being a little bit colonial here by just barging in and, you know how things should work," feeling "caught up" in the moral complexity. This represents a evolution in Safia's ethical framework: where previous sessions showed concern about the party's tendency toward violence, here the hesitation stems from worrying about imposing external values on local systems.

Despite this uncertainty, Safia engages tactically with Vasso about potential responses, proposing options: "Maybe we should, like, what do we want to do? Why don't I cause a diversion?" Safia suggests "We could set off our dust hats" or "stab at their calves or something" during the confusion, and advocates for longer-term awareness: "should we keep... let's keep eyes out for these, like, weird hustler guys that are making everybody sad... because I feel like maybe we should do something about this because these people seem oppressed." When Vasso moves to confront the guards and the situation becomes tense, Safia overcomes moral uncertainty to provide direct aid, rolling 2d6 plus bond to successfully help de-escalate the confrontation, pushing Vasso's result to a 10.

Episode: "Session 9"

In Session 9, Safia accompanied Vasso to a food stall where they confronted guards. When Vasso struggled with appearing tough, Safia provided characteristic reassurance: "You are cool, Vaso. You're the coolest. You're the kindest." During the party's strategic planning discussions about dealing with The Guards, Safia contributed crucial tactical insight: "Also, if they've just been recruiting over the last three weeks, like, people aren't very loyal to them." She advocated for prioritizing the prisons, stating "Do the prisons. Mr. Mayor needs us," though noted the ethical tension: "Safia wouldn't like that. She hates it when pigs are imprisoned." When planning infiltration of The Foundry, she suggested reconnaissance using their dust hats, and later proposed they could "design a certain kind of piece of jewelry or a bit of armor that everyone would wear" to exploit the neck button vulnerability across all guards simultaneously.

During the interaction with Yassandra, Safia demonstrated her ongoing advocacy for animal welfare by challenging Yassandra's categorical distinctions between work, pet, and food animals: "So do you have work people? Pet people?" When Yassandra described a swine tasting, Safia "shuts her ears," unable to think about pigs being eaten. Her medical AI caused persistent problems throughout the session, repeatedly pinging warnings every time someone said the word "button," forcing Safia to request "We need to talk about something else." Upon arrival at Yassandra's shed, Safia urgently needed to use the bathroom and used the unsanitary chamber pot, comparing the experience to "the blasted wasteland I was gonna say," revealing something of her harsh environmental background.

Safia initiated a conversation with Sucks about Greta, suggesting she was "lacking in the sense of adventure" and that Sucks could "set your sights a little higher," though acknowledging Greta was "really nice." The criticism focused on Greta's refusal to help with the mission. When Safia made comments about traditional gender roles where girlfriends "stay home with the children," Sucks criticized this as "not very forward thinking" and not being "an ally." Safia became genuinely confused about what qualities they should want in partners, asking "Wait, but wasn't that what you said earlier? I don't understand this," revealing her ongoing struggle to navigate social expectations despite her growing worldliness. At the Guard Storage Shed, Safia urged the party forward toward the guard house and jumped on Monster's back in excitement when a rat squeaked, showing her continued affinity for animals.

Episode: "Session 10"

Safia began the session in rat form inside the supply shed with Monster, having already discovered the staircase leading into the Underground Tunnels. When Cat, Sucks, and Vasso arrived, she became "really excited cuz she thought she was going to have to do this alone," running up and down their arms and "chirping like you guys" to communicate her enthusiasm. She heard the knocking on the door and Sucks' attempted old man impression from inside the shed.

The party descended into the underground tunnels, with Safia riding on Vasso's shoulder alongside Monster. Her rat form proved invaluable for stealth in the confined underground space. When Cat attempted to Hunt and Track the Thunder Hogs, Safia aided the attempt by chirping loudly to distract the guards' attention, successfully improving Cat's roll from 6 to 8. The Thunder Hogs noticed her presence, commenting: "kids. Rats. This place is going to shit."

When Sucks and Vasso were captured and imprisoned by the Thunder Hogs, Safia remained free and undetected along with Cat, described as "loping along in the corridor" and "protesting" in squeaky rat fashion. She then executed a daring theft of the prison keys, running up a guard's leg and chomping onto the key ring hanging from his belt. Rolling a 7 on her Defy Danger check, she chose to grab the keys despite being noticed. When the guard slapped her, she was knocked to the ground but managed to grab the keys again and flee "into the shadows" with both Thunder Hogs in pursuit, successfully stowing the stolen keys in a drainage gutter for Cat to retrieve.

Safia then attempted to create a distraction by attacking the Thunder Hogs directly, banking on "freaking them out" despite their being "kind of idiots." She jumped at them, rolling a 4 on her Defy Danger check. One of the guards caught her mid-air, and the physical stress of being grabbed caused her to transform back to human form "halfway through the animorphs cover," taking 2 damage in the process. Now held by the front of her shirt by a Thunder Hog guard, she immediately tried to scare them, warning: "you better get out of here fast."

Episode: "Session 11"

Early in the session, Safia helps Sucks search unconscious guards in the Underground Facility, recognizing access cards they find as similar to ones from her technologically advanced homeland: "Guys, I think these are for like, special spas and stuff. You have to like, swipe these at the door. My older cousin used to go to these places and had cards like this." When guards approach, she successfully hides with an 11 dexterity roll and pulls Sucks out of his bear costume to avoid detection. She interrogates a Cockroach using her animal communication ability, building rapport by offering food crumbs and complimenting its "beautiful iridescent scales" while asking practical questions about prisoner locations.

When the group needs to disguise Sucks as an older guard, Safia takes Burnt Matches and "kind of roughens up like as if he's got a five o' clock shadow," drawing facial stubble and crow's feet to make the teenage boy appear older. She discovers the technological capabilities of a Silver Ear Cuff taken from an unconscious guard by using her AI implant to scan and analyze it, which triggers memories of her homeland: "I was just thinking about how she had a thing like that on her ear back when she was, you know, in her country... when she was in middle school. She starts to feel younger instantly." Successfully interfacing with the device, she reports critical intelligence: "Guys, I can hear everybody else talking on this. They're annoyed. Everyone's irate. No, they're annoyed about whoever's forcing them into this mission. Well, they're having to find something. It's something that they're looking for on that map, I guess. But somebody's making them do it, and they just want to get back to their lives."

During Sucks's infiltration attempt, Safia experiences conflicting feelings about her socially awkward companion. When he starts his "speech, speech, speech" chant, "she just started, like, clenching Vasso's arm and being like, oh, God. Oh, God." Despite finding him annoying, she recognizes his social awkwardness sympathetically: "Oh, he's just a nerd. Like, he just doesn't have any social ability." Through the ear cuff, she overhears the private conversation between the Thunderhog Leader and The Mayor of New Smoke in The Dressing Room, where the leader pressures the mayor about the location of a mysterious casket. Safia silently communicates this intelligence to Kat and Vasso using hand puppets: "As Safia realizes what she's hearing, she starts doing, like, hand puppets, one on each, to show Kat and Vasso what she's hearing." She reports: "The mayor's in the dressing room with this guy and I think he's all bluster because he's telling everybody that tomorrow's the day, but it seems like he's no closer to knowing what he needs."

When Winslow reports Sucks as suspicious and asks Five Fingers to investigate, Safia's monitoring provides crucial early warning: "Guys, we got to go get sucked out of there. He's been spotted." She considers using her shapeshifting ability to infiltrate the main hall directly as an alternative approach, demonstrating her continued tactical thinking and willingness to use her abilities for the group's benefit.

Relationships

Erin: The player who controls Safia
Lutro: A pig with whom Safia has formed a bond during the test drive
Mayor: A pig who provides Safia with information about Dunko Guzman's smuggling operation in exchange for an acorn
Sucks: Relationship strained after Safia freed the test-drive pigs; Safia expresses concern about "how to smooth things over with Sucks"
Vasso, Katniss: Fellow party members trapped together in the Underground Cavern Beneath Rex Tree
Dunko Guzman: The subject of Safia's investigation in Session 2

Big Grimbo: Weapons vendor at the New Smoke Aftermarket from whom Safia acquires a technological halberd through negotiation involving both coins and weed
New Smoke Guards: Safia identifies them as bullies and oppressors, ultimately choosing to act against them despite initial moral uncertainty about intervention
Meat Party Vendor: The target of guard extortion that prompts Safia's ethical dilemma about appropriate intervention in local power structures
Sucks: Fellow party member whom Safia finds annoying but also sympathizes with, recognizing his social awkwardness as simple nerdiness rather than malice—"Oh, he's just a nerd. Like, he just doesn't have any social ability"

Aliases & Disguises

Bat Form: Large bat transformation (bigger than Monster the cat) used for scouting the Underground Cavern Beneath Rex Tree. Possesses echolocation and night vision. Safia attempts to transform discreetly, away from torchlight, suggesting a desire to keep the shapeshifting ability private from companions.