Dramatis Personae

Cosmo "C.B." Bane

created by Ken Johnson

Clichés: Sailor (5), Traveller (5)
Age: late 20's
Eyes: brown
Hair: brown, cropped
Build: tall, bulky

C.B. is a brutish man, a full 2 meters tall, with a girth well-earned from days of hard work and nights of hard drinking. He has lived as a work hand on many different ships, and his easy manner is an indicator that he is accustomed to making himself comfortable no matter where life leads him. Working hard, he tends to like to play hard. Pubs and brew will draw him to the grittiest of places, and among those who are acquainted with him he has a reputation as an enthusiastic brawler. Despite this, he is obviously not a bully or a thug, and has a reputation for being a basically good-hearted man who likes his entertainment physically involving and uncomplicated.

C.B. has a squared jaw and heavy features, but his grimace easily gives way to a grin. Seen at rest, his muscular bulk gives the impression of someone who would be slow and ungraceful, but he is quite agile for his size. He makes a strong first impression.

Young Chen

Young Chen is the head of the Chen family in the Petit Chin district of Camaret-sur-Mer. Chinese by birth, Young Chen is only "young" in comparison with his father, Old Chen, who is imprisoned in The Keep where he expects to die. Young Chen is a fit man, athletic and well-muscled despite his penchant for sweets. He teaches classes in Lung-Fu-Do, although he has considered retiring so he can spend more time with his grandchildren.

Katerina d'Loup

created by Lucy Oates

Clichés: Gadgeteer (4), Werewolf (3), Martial Artist (3)
Age: early 20's
Eyes: brown/gold
Hair: chestnut brown, long
Build: average height, wiry

A wild-natured but reclusive young woman who makes her living repairing machines and building new ones. She lives in a decrepit warehouse in the Lucarre district, one of the less savory neighborhoods of Camaret-sur-Mer, fixing the odd radio set and electric autocar and trying to stay out of trouble. Her reclusive habits have led the locals to think she is on the run from the police -- or worse -- but if so, she's hardly the only person in the neighborhood who has that particular skeleton in her closet.

Katerina's body language sends a clear "leave me alone" message, a vibe that most of her neighbors respect on principle. On the occassions that someone has decided to test her resolve, an unblinking stare from her gold-brown eyes peeking from under her chestnut-brown mane is sufficient to deter most aggressors. The few souls brave enough to molest her further have found that her regular visits to the Petit Chin district have left her with more than just clean clothes and a well-stocked pantry: her slim, boyish frame conceals a compactly muscled body skilled in the ancient Chinese arts of unarmed combat. She was attacked three times the first two weeks after she moved to the Lucarre district, and hurt badly once, but her attackers got as good as they gave, and she hasn't had trouble with the locals since then.

Jorg Dirkschneider

created by Jon Sloan

Clichés: Cavalry Soldier (4), Priest/Brother (4), Athlete (2)
Age: mid 40's
Eyes: pale blue
Hair: blonde, flat-top
Build: tall, solid

A veteran and survivor of the Ottoman War, and one of the few surviving members of the Knights of St. Michael's Wing. The Knights of the Wing were a militant order which was almost entirely wiped out during the Ottoman War, and the few survivors were "retired" by the Emperor after the war at the request of the Church (ostensibly as a reward, although it dissolved the order). Jorg currently supports himself as a bodyguard, and has been known to "look into" problems for a small fee. It is rumoured that he has an unhealthy fondness for strong drink, and perhaps for even stronger substances, but this is not generally a concern to those seeking Jorg's services.

Despite whatever his personal addictions might be, he has maintained his rock-hard physique through a regimen of daily training, as he was taught to do by his order so many years ago. In fact, Jorg carries himself with the same dignity and bearing that he had as a cavalry officer in the war, and this rubs some people the wrong way. Like an iron bar that won't bend, he seems to radiate a sense that he thinks he's just a little bit better than the people who hire him. But he takes their money anyway.

Jonathan Faust

created by Lloyd Montgomery

Clichés: Hexmaster (4), Survivor (3), Thaumaturgical Researcher (2), Charming Rogue(1)
Age: mid 40's
Eyes: brown
Hair: brown, going grey
Build: tall, thin, angular

In a profession populated largely by amateurs and charlatans, John Faust is an oddity: a hex pusher who is reputed to be a genuinely competent sorcerer. Faust's talismans are among the most efficacious of their ilk, earning him a steady business from the desperate and deluded souls among whom he plies his trade. If his reputation is to be believed, one might wonder how such a man would be reduced to hawking make-money-fast candles and protection-from-syphilis amulets in the seediest of Camaret-sur-Mer's waterfront dives and brothels.

Faust is a tall, thin man who looks to be in his early to mid 40's. He has angular features; high cheekbones and an aquiline nose. His brown hair is going grey, as is his mustache and goatee. He normally dresses in dark colors, expensive suits that are slightly threadbare and look like he slept in them, a wide-brimmed hat, and a voluminous trenchcoat. He carries an ornate and well-used heavy rapier on his left hip and a large, Customized American revolver in a 'Plainsman Draw' holster on his right. He usually looks like he is half-asleep and slightly amused by what is going on around him.

Thorsten Kreuger

Thorsten is a barrel-chested Austrian sausage of a man, red with the heat of his forges and oily with perspiration and the fluids of his work. He shaves his head once a week, but he allows his bushy red-going-grey beard to grow just long enough that he can scratch it contemplatively when haggling over prices. A skilled machinist and mechanic, Thorsten is also a shrewd but honest businessman, and his shop in the Lucarre district is a neighborhood landmark, a point of stability in a too-frequently changing world.

Tom Jones

created by Matt Emerson

Clichés: Archeologist (4), Marine (4), Precognitive [1]
Age: around 20
Eyes: blue
Hair: brown, cropped short
Build: tall, wiry, very tan

An adventurer, soldier, some would say grave-robber. Tom was a Marine in the American armed forces, and has plenty of stories about his unit's adventures in Carribean Islands fighting pirates. He seems a happy-go-lucky type, and gets into more trouble than someone with such an easy grin might be expected to. He's a newcomer to Camaret-sur-Mer, but what little reputation has preceded him implies he's something of a archeologist, and has spent the last few years on expeditions in the Ottoman-held Middle East with the somewhat notorious Professor Shaver (known outside archeological circles mainly for his "hollow earth" theories). If true, he'd have to be brave or foolhardy to venture into the Ottoman Republic, and lucky or cunning to have made it back.

Tom is tan and lean from his time in the unforgiving sun of Arabia, and if his time in the Middle East and the military has scarred his psyche, it doesn't show. He projects an air of the good-natured but guileless boy next door.

Camille Millet

created by C. Liang

Clichés: Society Nurse (3), Mystic (cabalist) (3), Army Nurse (2), Singer (2)
Age: early 30's
Eyes: blue-grey
Hair: blonde, long
Build: average height, slim

A live-in nurse who cares for the rich and infirm. She typically keeps a room wherever she happens to be working, but she also maintains a small flat of her own in the city. Her income is sufficient to maintain her in relative comfort, but she is by no means well-off, and is largely seen as little more than a servant by the elite matrons and patrons who fall into her care. Still, she is reputed to be a competent, even caring, professional, and she has numerous written recommendations from her former patients and their families.

Camille is a nondescript woman who seems to carry more than her share of years in her eyes. While on duty, she wears the expected nurse's uniform, but on her infrequent time to herself she dresses like a workman, typically in a man's cotton shirt and dungarees or khakis. She seems to have more going on in her head than she lets on. It's rumoured that she served as a nurse in Albania during the Ottoman War, but that's obviously wrong because she's nearly a decade too young.

Armand "the Rat" Radeplein

Armand Radeplein, better known as "the Rat" although he detests that nickname, is the sort of long-term survivor that finds his way to the safest middle of any organization, and stays there. Skilled at being just competent enough to get by, men like Radeplein fill a niche between the doers and the thinkers, capable of both but being proficient at neither. A short-necked man in his middle forties, clean-shaven with hair going salt-and-pepper grey, Armand seems like a man uncomfortable in his own skin. While he dresses in the finest tailored suits he can afford, they never seem to fit him quite right. They are always a little too baggy here, a little too snug there.

A study in contrasts, the Rat manages to appear both worried and belligerent, small and burly, aggressive and obsequious. He makes an effort to be genteel and gentlemanly, but his manners are boorish and he is capable of exploding into spectacularly violent fits of temper. In his youth, he tried to become a police officer. He had the lack of imagination and willingness to use his fists that the job required, but even the Camaret-sur-Mer gendarmerie at least like to think they work to make the city better for their presence. The Rat was beneath even their standards. So he did the next best thing: he went to work in the black market.

Christophe St. Vier

created by Edward G. Jackson

Clichés: Demimonde (3), Street Tough (3), Eclectic Thaumaturge [2]
Age: around 20
Eyes: blue
Hair: blonde, short
Build: average height, lean

A beautiful young man who is supported by the generosity of his 'patrons'. Always elegant and well-appointed, he can be found in the company of the wealthiest and least discrete of Camaret-sur-Mer's elite social circle. It is rumoured that in addition to his extraordinary beauty and more ordinary skills, he dabbles in the Dark Arts. It is also rumoured that he is related to the infamous Mama Baano, an Basque-African woman reputed to be the most fearsome of the local hexmasters. It is unknown where he lives, but rumour has it that he maintains a residence in the dangerous Lucarre district, where (rumour has it) he grew up.

Christophe adorns himself with the fine ruffled shirts, velvet capes, and silk clothes of the rich. His natural expression belies this appearent softness, however. He can smile and be as charming as a silver bell, if he has reason, but in repose his ice-blue eyes are hard and his delicate jaw is perpetually frozen in a frown.

Madame Salaberge

A withered old crone with perfect white teeth and even whiter skin, Mme. Salaberge's dull grey-brown eyes conceal a mind as sharp as her tongue. She is a fixture in the Grand Zeppelin set, having the money and influence to ensure that she is always near the top of every guest list.

Madame Salaberge's considerable fortune is due mainly from her inheritances. She has outlived three very wealthy younger husbands, giving rise to a variety of titillating and disturbing rumours. Mme Salaberge does not dignify these rumours with denials. She is rarely without a muscular young companion, ostensibly to assist her due to her frailty and advanced age.

Graham Slaine

created by Robert Hudson

Clichés: Martial Artist (4), Detective (3), Psychic Sensitive (3)
Age: around 30
Eyes: dark blue
Hair: light brown, short
Build: tall, gaunt

Graham Slaine was a detective in the Camaret-sur-Mer police department when he was arrested and imprisoned in The Keep for using illegal hex. After six years in Pénitencier du Camaret-sur-Mer ("The Keep"), Slaine is free and looking for the answers behind his imprisonment, and trying to find his long-lost girlfriend Ling. He currently stays with an old friend of his family in the Petit Chin section of the city, which is wedged between the surly Lucarre district and the semi-industrial garment district.

Graham is fairly tall at one and a half inches over six feet, and even his stay in prison hasn't reduced his former lean 196 pounds too much. He has dark blue eyes that lighten perceptibly when he's angry, and soften when he's thinking about Ling. His hair is dark blonde, just a shade or two from being brown, trimmed short. He isn't really handsome, but he might be attractive if he cleaned up and ate properly.

Captain Starrheit

From his white teeth to his black-as-night Imperial Intelligence uniform that fits his barrel-chested form as if it were tailored for him, Captain Starrheit is a figure of power and precision. Were it not for the uniform, Starrheit would have the look of a much less sophisicated man: shaved pate, steam-shovel jaw, duelling scar on his cheek, and large muscular hands. This would be a mistaken impression, however: he has the diction and vocabulary of an educated man, and his mind is as sharp as the creases on his pants.

The gold rank insignia pinned to Captain Starrheit's collar, "OCVLI IMPERATORIS SVMMVS" (trans. "We are the eyes of the Emperor"), gleams as a badge of honor: Starrheit seems to genuinely enjoy his job, taking pride in fulfilling both the spirit and the letter of his duties.

Denis and Sabine van der Couer

Denis and Sabine give glorious parties. They are exclusive enough for an invitation to be flattering, but no so exclusive that the gossips would have nothing to do.

The selection of guests is an art at which Sabine excels. Every point has a counterpoint, and every self-important pedagogue is balanced by the acerbic wit of a playwright or novelist. The rich, the noble, and the merely wealthy mix with artists and aesthetes whose only saving grace is that they have what the idle nobility envy and hunger for: talent. The artists bathe in the money of their patrons, and the patrons bathe in the reflected glory or their pet artists. At least as long as they remain in fashion. Fashion comes and goes, but breeding is forever, as the saying goes.

Denis, on the other hand, is the perfect host. He stays just long enough with each guest to make them feel comfortable, but not so long that they get bored with him -- or he with them. Denis has a keen eye, as well. Any solitaires are quickly enaged in conversation. Denis rapidly estimates who they would find enjoyable company, and within minutes the two are talking and Denis is off again, laughing at the jokes of one guest and making sure another's wineglass is full.

Soumitra Vega

A slender Indian man, educated and refined. He is attractive and self-assurred, and civilized to an extent that is almost effete. His clothing and accoutrements are the finest money can by, but his personal style is very subtle. He is not ostentatious; in fact, he blends in very well for someone with such expensive tastes.

He is affiliated with the firm BAILEY, DYKSTRA, ERLICH, & VEGA, but it is not clear what business the firm is in. They would appear to be solicitors or lawyers.

Sasha Voltaire

created by William J. Guan-Kennedy

Clichés: Socialite (4), Nightbreed (animal telepathy, psychic projection, limited mind-reading) [3]
Age: around 20
Eyes: brown/black
Hair: black, long
Build: petite, slender

A wealthy socialite whose family is tarnished by scandal. One rumour in the Grand Zeppelin set is that her mother left her father for a black-market thaumaturge, and that her father was imprisoned for using hex to try and bring his wife back. Another rumour is that her father was a high-placed functionary in the Ministry of Commerce who was embroiled in some embarrassing impropriety and who vanished soon thereafter. She lives alone in her family's Camaret-sur-Mer summer mansion, which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean from the white cliffs of the elite Saint Barbe district. She remains on the guest list of all the best functions, more due to her conversation value than her breeding.

Sasha dresses to accentuate her pale complexion and angular features. She is fond of black form-fitting catsuits and leather jackets for day, and slinky black evening gowns for night. Her eyes are usually obscured by sunglasses or a dark veil (an affectation that lends her a somewhat morbid quality).

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