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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.