Philipa D'Angier
Player: T.D. Swanson
Background:
Philipa D'Angier, known as Phil Danger to her friends, hand anything but a normal life. She was born the only child of an English super-model and a French diplomat. She’d been to most of the world’s continents by the time she was 15. She’d skied in the French Alps, swam in the South China Sea, hiked through the mountains of the Andes, ridden motorcycles in the Rockies and surfed the breakers in Kauai.
It seemed that Philipa was destined to live the life of a rich dilettante. That was until a recruiter for a super-secret intelligence organization saw the potential in her as she started collage and offered her a job. Soon Phil was deep in training at a hidden base somewhere on a nameless island in international waters where no government had authority. Over the next few years she learned to be a soldier, a bodyguard, an assassin and a security specialist. Phil drank up the fascinating skills and techniques; the ‘craft’ of the spy like a dry sponge soaks up water.
When she reached the age of 20 she had learned everything her spy masters could teach her. So they sent her to an enigmatic little Chinese man whose real name she never knew. He just insisted she call him Master Monk, short for master monkey. There in the pure, clean mountains of China the refined sophisticate and veteran world traveler that Phil was learned to move and sound and eventually fight like a monkey. She learned how to be completely relaxed yet constantly alert. She learned how to always roll smoothly away from attacks, yet be able to turn and leap to attack instantly. She mastered the ability to move in total silence and how to match another’s movements so exactly that they never knew she was right behind them.
Philipa had never enjoyed life as much. She was really looking forward to getting into the field. It had taken 12 years to master her arts and she was tired of training. She wanted to do something! So it was with great anticipation that she shared a last cup of tea with her master. As she bowed one last time to Master Monk, for she knew she’d never see him again, a great crash was heard in the courtyard.
Master Monk reacted almost instantly and, as usual, Phil scrambled after him. When they reached the windows they saw an incredible number of black clad intruders swarming over the walls and cutting down the few defenders.
In a glace Master Monk realized that they couldn’t fight them. There were just too many and they’d be overwhelmed. Knowing that victory was impossible and flight was the only answer, Master Monk did something that Philipa had never seen before. He said some strange words and made some mysterious movements with his hands and suddenly there was a bizarre blue ‘rip’ in the air. “Quickly,” he said, “There’s no other escape. If we don’t go through we’ll die, and I’m not ready to die yet.” And with that the old man jumped through the blue portal.
Confused beyond words Philipa did what she’d done every day for the last 12 years, she obeyed her master. Something about the strange portal knocked Phil out and when she awoke she was in a strange stone courtyard. It wasn’t the cold stone she lay on that had brought her back to consciousness; it was the roar of some great beast and the thundering of smashed stone.
Stumbling out toward the sound of battle she was shocked by what she saw. Master Monk was fighting not another warrior but a serpentine dragon. As she watched Master Monk made the killing stroke that ended the beast. To her horror the creature’s dead body exacted its revenge on her beloved master. The towering serpent’s massive frame fell on Master Monk as it died, dragging him along with it into death.
Philipa just stood there stunned. How long she could never say. It seemed an eternity that she looked down at her master’s lifeless body. But even the most painful of moments can’t last forever. Eventually she got her wits together and explored her strange surroundings.
It seemed that somehow she had been brought to what looked like a stone temple of some sort. As she looked around Phil came upon dozens of bodies dressed in simple robes. They looked like monks of some sort but she’d never seen robes like theirs. Suddenly a soft groan caught her attention. It was from a mortally wounded monk in what looked like more elaborate robes. When she came to his side he told her he was the abbot of the temple. He also said that he knew he was dieing but that since all of his fellow monks were dead he could die in peace. He thought that Master Monk had been Philipa’s father and thanked her for his aid and his scarifies. In return he gave Phil the codes to the temple’s vault. He said that she should use what she found there and get away fast. The magic expended in the battle with the dragon would attract scavengers and she should be gone before they arrived.
Still confused Philipa took what she could from the temple’s vault. Much of it was books and paper but she knew she couldn’t carry that. So she settled for all the gems and precious metals she could carry. With that she ran, both to get away from the possible scavengers the monk told her about and the painful memory of Master Monk’s broken body.
After a day of wondering the woods she came upon a traveling caravan of merchants. At first she was worried but she really needed food and shelter and above all, information. It turned out that the merchants weren’t even human. They were elves and they told Philipa all they knew about the Rifts Earth. After traveling with the elven merchants for a few months, Phil felt it was time to get out on her own. There was a huge, exotic world out there to explore and she wanted to experience it all.