Tess appears to be a young woman in her late teens or early twenties. Her exact age is hard to pin down, owing to a couple of contradictory factors. On the one hand, standing at 4'10" can lead people to take her for a youngster in spite of a fairly full figure and fit build. On the other hand, her long, gray-white hair seems out of place on someone with otherwise youthful features, suggesting she probably dyes it for dramatic effect. Light green eyes and a clear, pale complexion round out her looks.

Her current outfit consists of a gray buttoned shirt under a heavy green jacket, green trousers, boots, and a campaign hat. Some folks might find the outfit immediately recognizable as a National Park Service uniform; those that don't can still pick out the insignia on the front of her coat, on the other side of a nametag identifying her as "Bernhard."