Tante Malvangita, or just "Mama Gita," is a figure shrouded in rumor. Is she just the crazy old lady who sits in her shack smoking, and scamming gullible people into believing her lies? Or is there something real, and more powerful, to her? Is she someone to unload your troubles to, and buy a remedy? Or is it simply that there's power in belief?

Desperate housewives and superstitious sailors trust her. Children fear her. The rest of Casper's superstitious population, until an hour of need, ignore her.

Mama Gita's shop is located on the outskirts of Casper's largest shantytown. The ragged shack leans at a precarious angle, and is identical to the other buildings around it on the muddy street -- thatched roof, with holes covered in canvas. The purple eye painted on her door marks it as different -- and what you'll find inside is anything but normal. The air is always thick with smoke and heavy with incense, clogging one's nose. The shop is full with objects, mysterious and not, hanging on the walls or from the rafters, or sitting in shelves along the rooms. Potions, scrolls, relics, and even a few live animals, can all be procured inside.

Want something more?

For a price, it's said, Mama Gita will read your fortune. She's been known to divine the sex of unborn children, or to predict a farmer's fortune. And, rumor has it, that the back of the shop holds something more -- darker things. And for the right price, a hex, a revenge charm, or something more sinister might be yours.

[BASICS]
First name: Tante
Surname: Malvangita
Call Her: Mama Gita. Or else.
Race: Human?
Profession: Being seedy. Merchant and soothsayer.
Religion: Gaianist, with her own twisted flavor. She deals a little heavier on the dark side, and plays more into the fears and superstitions that are commonplace in Terranus.
Hometown: Unknown, but she's been in Casper for a long time.
Gender: Female
Age: Physically, at least 74

[PHYSICAL]
Eyes: Purple - at times dark, at others as pale as lavender.
Complexion: Tanned and wrinkled, with a few large beauty marks on her face and neck.
Height: 5'1"
Build: More to love. Mama Gita is no stranger to indulgence, and her body reflects it. She's curvacious, with plump features and jowls.
Hair: A curling, ragged and long mess, mostly white and gray, with a few streaks of black.
Scars: None visible.
Tattoos: None visible, but one flying rumor is that the old hag keeps an army of tattooed creatures beneath her clothes: crows, serpents, insects and even a tiger, and that the creatures roam freely across her skin. Probably just a rumor.

[SKILLS]
Divination: Sometimes with cards, at others with thrown runes, bones or even tea leaves, for a price Mama Gita will tell you what you want to know.
Alchemy: Want a potion? Name your poison.
Prowess: Everything's for sale at Mama Gita's. Everything. (Gross - you won't want it, unless you're a desperate old sea dog, or she slips a little rooster spur into your tea.)

[COMPANION: THE BIRD]
The Bird is the Word
Mama Gita's running joke is that the ancient bird is actually her ex-husband. Turning him into a molting parrot helped him take his "true form." This story is rarely, if ever, to be believed -- but the bird has retained a certain amount of power and mystery about its presence. It's shrouded in as much rumor and mystery as Mama Gita herself. If it had feathers, it would closely resemble an African Gray -- but larger, with long trailing tail feathers. It appears ancient, "more bones than feathers," as Gita says. The bird stands at nearly two feet tall, with large claws and a wide wingspan. Perhaps once it had appeared as beautiful and exotic as anything in Casper's aviary. Now, it looks like it belongs to a taxidermist. Long tail feathers are pale gray, leading into light gray and a vivid red. A red plumage sat atop its head. But for the most part, feathers are ragged, molting, or missing. The bird has strange black beady eyes, and a pale beak that clacks unnervingly. The only known word it says is "Gaia!" which it likes to shout over and over, unnerving many shop-goers who might flee in fear of blasphemy. At other times it shrieks, howls, whistles a short tune, or chatters incessantly in a strange language.

Rumors surround this creature, which Gita refers to only as "The Bird." For the bird to look you straight in the eyes signals impending doom, it is said. If it defecates on you, it is a sign of enormously good luck.