Viktoria von Drachenfels

Cousin of Prinz Jaggar von Drachenfels of Aalban

Wife of Herr Rolf Löwenroth of Adlerturm

Member of the Free Anachronic Society of Aalban

AC 1017

"Be not afraid to speak freely in my presence, please..."

Appearance

Viktoria von Drachenfels looks like a typical Aalbanese girl of sturdy Hattian traits mixed with pale Alphatian features. With her humble and effaced manners, Viktoria does not draw attention to herself. Even though she dresses in the rich and elegant styles of the Aalbanese courtiers, Viktoria prefers subdued, almost monotonous, hues. Her voice, once light and wistful, is quite bland and trite, if she ever talks at all.

Viktoria is never seen without a certain gem-encrusted gold filigree amulet on a silver chain.

Background

Viktoria von Drachenfels was born in AC 989, a second cousin of Herr Jaggar von Drachenfels, future Prince of Aalban. She was the youngest and fairest of three daughters, a sweet little fraulein, but altogether not very bright and with limited magical powers. For want of a more suitable calling for the girl—and perhaps to save her from falling haplessly in love with handsome Aalbanese gentlemen at the balls at Schloß Ritterburg—her parents secured for her the position of a lady-in-waiting to the Drachenfels matriarch, Frau Hildegarde von Drachenfels. Viktoria proved to be fittingly invisible and not entirely incapable, but at the soonest opportunity, Frau Hildegarde inflicted the ingénue on to her disfavored Alphatian daughter-in-law, Frau Gertrud von Drachenfels, wife of Prinz Jaggar.

Viktoria preferred this new mistress and was quite sympathetic to Frau Gertrud's personal plights with her husband and mother-in-law. As such, Viktoria became privy to Frau Gertrud's secrets, particularly her covert dealings as the leader of the Free Anachronic Society of Aalban. When Frau Gertrud died in AC 1011, Viktoria was once more passed on to the entourage of Frau Helgar von Drachenfels, despite the latter's protests (Frau Helgar never thought highly of her naïve cousin.).

It was years later that Viktoria began to display some peculiar behavior. Though dutifully trained to be unobtrusive, Viktoria was noted to be strangely quiet most of the time—if not completely absent from her tasks (Frau Helgar never had the heart to reprimand her cousin.). Viktoria's simple cheerfulness was replaced with a dull and blunted affect, and her once flippant mannerisms became cold and automatic behavior. More than once, Viktoria was caught staring intently—even menacingly—at Prinz Jaggar's blue-metal lightning rod from ancient Blackmoor.

While others dismissed Viktoria's neuroses as some form of depression, Frau Hildegarde and Frau Helgar suspected that Viktoria was blaming Prinz Jaggar for his wife's death. Fortunately, Jaggar was mostly kept away by his princely duties and hardly interacted with Viktoria, but Hildegarde and Helgar decided that Viktoria's living in Ritterburg was definitely unhealthy for all parties involved. Mother and daughter planned a polite exit for Viktoria, which they found when Jaggar arranged a political marriage for Viktoria to Herr Rolf Löwenroth, the son and heir of his ally, Baron Franz Löwenroth of Adlerturm.

What the Drachenfels do not realize is that Viktoria is no longer the human being they believe to be their cousin. Indeed, she is no longer a human of flesh and blood—at least, not entirely.

From some distant time and place in the future, a highly-technological civilization of oards, beings made of flesh and electronic machinery, sent a detachment of agents to travel back in time to the Principalities of Glantri at the turn of the Thyatian Millennium. Their mission was to establish a base of operations on the continent of Brun, by locating the engine of the Federation Survey Ship Beagle and tap into its tremendous power source. Their plan was to infiltrate the ranks of the science-hating wizards of the Free Anachronic Society of Aalban, and employ these technophobes for their own purposes.But something went very, very wrong...

Upon their arrival in Aalban, the oard crew was immediately detected and attacked by magical "robots." (It was soon after the Wrath of the Immortals War and Prinz Jaggar was routinely surveying Aalban for any Alphatian-summoned monsters and exterminating them with his army of iron golems.) Only three oards escaped and retreated into the hills south of Ritterburg. As two of them repaired themselves using salvageable components from their cohorts, a third agent went on surveillance and discovered their desperate state of their mission.

The first instruction of their mission was to capture and impersonate the leader of the Free Anachronic Society, a certain Gertrud von Drachenfels, but the oards learned that she had been dead for years! By some inexplicable reason (at least, by mundane science) the oards had arrived years off their destination time.

After much more surveillance, the oards identified a new target, a former confidante of Gertrud von Drachenfels: Viktoria von Drachenfels. The young human female was easily neutralized and substituted by one oard agent, who continues to the subterfuge to this day.

Personality & Quirks

Far from being the frivolous young dilettante that Viktoria once was, the oard that has replaced her is a cold and inhuman entity whose only purpose is to fulfilling its mission. Since the initial directive could not be followed and therefore cannot apply, the oard has had to recalculate its moves. The primary objective at this point is survival in this technologically-hostile era. The secondary objective is maintenance of the secrecy of their presence. Tertiary would be the exploration for the Beagle engine. But should the location of the Beagle engine be determined, the oard would take extreme measures to utilize it as a power source for its principal operations.

Web of Intrigue

The real Viktoria was a mere pawn of the more ruling branch of the Drachenfels family. She had neither ally nor enemy, especially since the death of her only friend of Aalban, Frau Gertrud. She was however familiar of the workings the Free Anachronic Society, or at least, where to find such information. All of this, she had revealed to the half-flesh half-metal golems who kidnapped and interrogated her for data.

The present "Viktoria" considers all beings hostile but has successful maintained a low profile amongst them. The oard has classified two entities as the most dangerous threats. The first is the being identified as Jaggar von Drachenfels, who is equipped with a high-magnitude technological weapon, and recently upgraded his corporal structure with an android extremity. The second is the being identified as "Herr Doktor," who is apparently the designer of such quasi-cybernetic inventions.

Beyond the logical comprehension of the mechanical oard mind, two persons have found something not quite right about "Viktoria." Based on feminine intuition and gut instinct, both Frau Hildegarde and Frau Helgar have become suspicious of their former handmaiden, and though they have moved "Viktoria" away from Ritterburg and defused any immediate danger to the Drachenfels, they maintain a wary eye on "her" and "her" activities.

The Löwenroth family has yet no reason to suspect anything amiss with "Viktoria." Herr Rolf is only too happy to have a wife that frequently excuses herself from her husband's affairs, and Herr Franz is too busy with his magic to notice his new daughter-in-law. Rolf's sister, Frau Walburg Löwenroth, purposely avoids "her," as she and the real Viktoria once had a romantic complication. Perhaps when the matters of heirs—and the foreseeable lack of them—come up will "Viktoria" fall under scrutiny.

The other two oard agents are unconditional allies of "Viktoria" and they work in tandem to accomplish their mission.

Combat & Skills

D&D Statistics: AC 0 (9 without force field); HD 7***; MV 120'(40'); #AT variable; Dmg by weapon; Save Dwarf 10; ML 11; Str 11, Dex 9, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 13, Cha 12 (5 without the holographic image); AL L .

AD&D Statistics: AC 0 (10 without force field); HD 7; MV 12; #AT variable; Dmg by weapon; MR 85%; ML 12; Str 11, Dex 9, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 13, Cha 12 (5 without the holographic image); AL LN.

"Viktoria" is an oard, a humanoid creature specially bred by mundane scientific technology, partly flesh and blood, partly composed of machinery and electronic circuitry. The oard is highly resistant to magic and is immune to ESP, all forms of charm, and have a +4 bonus against mind-affecting spells, including feeblemind, confusion, hold, and illusions.

The oard is equipped with an image amulet, which projects a permanent holographic image around its body, maintaining the appearance of the real Viktoria. Only a truesight spell, or the demise of the oard, can reveal its true appearance. (Despite the authenticity of this technological illusion, Frau Helgar did become suspicious of the uncharacteristic lack of variety in fashion of her once fickle lady-in-waiting.)

The image amulet disguises itself (as a gold filigree amulet) and other oard equipment to look like jewelry or other unusual treasures. "Viktoria" is equipped with a protection belt (disguised as an ornate girdle), that projects a force field with the combined effects of shield (AC 0), protection from normal missiles, resist cold, and resist fire. The protection belt also has an anti-gravity field, allowing the oard to levitate at will up to 6 turns daily. "She" also has a speech bracelet (appearing as a dainty silver bangle) that allows two-way communication within 50 miles with the oard with the one other speech bracelet.

Finally, "Viktoria" has a fireball gem (looking like a short, hollow, gem-encrusted gold rod), which works as a fireball, 240 feet in range, 40-foot diameter sphere in area, and causing 6d8 points of damage. "Viktoria" will only use this bomb in desperate situations.

"Of course, she is a bit odd. But she has no more idiosyncrasies than your typical Glantrian eccentric."

(A less than astute observation from Herr Sigmund von Drachenfels)

References: History of House Ritterburg