Austronaut — Roleplayer Guild

Lenya Von Morganstern

Ritualist

Age:31

Gender: Female

Species: Human(ish)

Appearance:

Lenya is a tall Germanic woman with straw blond hair. She is pretty, although her high cheekbones and angular features seem to conspire to rob her of true beauty. She has a hiker’s  lean trim build which bespeak many years of  alpine life in her native Austria. Although her eyes are a piercing blue, they are usually kept behind the half moon glasses she wears to aid her with her reading.

Lenya dresses conservatively in stylish but expensive clothing with a particular affection for tailored suits. She is frequently seen carrying a small leather briefcase in which she keeps her research notes and ritual tools.

Despite having lived in the United States for several years, and her best efforts, Lenya has been unable to eradicate her crisp Austrian accent.

Background: Lenya grew up in wealth and privilege in southern Austria with her sisters, mother and grandmother.  It is no accident that her family was one of the few to avoid destruction and ruin in the turbulent years following the fall of the Austro-Hungarian empire. At some point in the dimly imagined past Lenya’s ancestors gained magical powers through a bargain of some sort. Ever since that day the women of the family have been blessed with certain occult powers. Over the centuries they have grown in power and sophistication through careful training and research.

The female members of the clan stick together in order to create an effective coven for protection and the use of rituals. Men in the form of husbands and lovers are occasionally associated with the coven but rarely remain in the picture for long. Each member is taught the lore of the clan from birth and encouraged to experiment and add to the knowledge of the group.

After receiving an excellent education by the traditional means of expensive private tutors. Lenya attended the University of Innsbruk and earned first a bachelor's and eventually a PhD in Anthropology.  During this time she traveled the world, particularly to the old German Colonies in Papua New Guinea and Micronesia to conduct field work. This field work provided an excellent opportunity to gather lore about ritual traditions in far flung corners of the world  to add to her family’s impressive collection of grimoires.

After a scandal involving the disappearance of certain valuable cultural artefacts,  Lenya left her post at the University of Innsbruck to conduct field work amongst the tribes of the Penobscot in Northern Maine and Southeastern Canada. During this research she first encountered Wells and Raich.

The firm sought out the Penobscot regarding a troubling Wendigo which had been transgressing cultural taboos. Intrigued, Lenya joined the investigation and helped to lay the beast to rest. Since then Wells and Raich has frequently employed the Austrian both for her ritual skill and her knowledge of far flung magical traditions

Current Life:  
Lenya had been a guest of the Penobscot for over a year before she began to work for Wells and Raich. After this association became more formalized she purchased a property on nearby Islesboro. She has spent an enormous amount of money, wire transferred in euros with no questions asked,  to rebuild the ancient stone cottage into a modern dwelling. Many of her particular requirements, including floors inlaid with strange silver designs, windows at precise spacing and angles, vast skylights and oddly but precisely carved doorways, have set tongues wagging in the small island community.

Lenya spends a good deal of time socializing with other Wells and Raich employees and is always eager to add more to the voluminous notebooks she keeps in neatly handwritten German.

Personality: 
Lenya is a driven and professional woman and approaches every situation as an opportunity to learn. This occasionally backfires when people get the impression that she is looking at them like a disector looking at a specimen.

She has a natural caution and tends to underrate the ability of others while overrating her own. She is friendly and personable and willing to help other people out, particularly if this leads to them falling into her debt. The coven mentality means that she is willing to do what is required to help the team succeed and tends to view morality as a luxury to be consumed after survival is assured.

Lenya is almost obsessed by the development of arcane knowledge and power. Her goals usually line up with Wells and Raisch but there is little doubt in her mind that she and her sisters take precedence over any other allegiance.

Lenya has a close relationship with her sisters and frequently calls on them for advice and support in her enterprises.

Following a childhood accident in a hayloft Lenya has a fear of fire and of being burned. She is also somewhat uncomfortable in the presence of men, having spent most of her life among women and then in an adversarial academic environment where her gender counted against her.

Schools of Study: Ritualology/Alchemology

Specialization: Thaumaturgy, Hexes, Arcane Artifice, Brewing.

Spells: Most of Lenya’s arsenal is ritual based and cannot be produced on the spot. 

Fortune’s Favorite: Lenya has access to certain hexes which can be quickly produced. These twist probability and chance in her favor or against others. This temporary alteration in probability has to be balanced out later, either by careful ritual dispersal or by a catastrophic equalization of bad luck.

Upon a Starry Mountain - Lenya can cause localized intense wind and storms, particularly if the weather is already bad.

Abilities:

Swiss Army Witch - Lenya has a truly impressive mastery of ritual magic, particularly Thaumaturgy. All of these rituals take time however and thus are not always useful in a crisis.

Arcane Artificer: Ritual craft requires the creation of ritual tools, as such Lenya is well aquainted with the construction of certain classes of enchanted items. She is also able to use these to ‘macro’ rituals for later use. She is reluctant to share these items with team mates without great need.

Coven: Lenya is one of five sisters and can draw on their knowledge and occasionally their assistance in her endeavours. This works both ways of course which occasionally causes problems for her teammates. Only one of her sisters is currently in the US however and they have their own projects to attend to.

Old Money: It is probably better people didn’t ask where it comes from, but Lenya has substantial private means.

Academic Alchemist: Lenya has an interest in alchemy and maintains an extensive lab at her property on Isleboro. Her interest is in understanding her rituals in this new medium. As a result these potions are a little unreliable and have an unhealthy experimental dimension which is not always appreciated.

Trust Me: Lenya is naturally engaging and can augment this by the use of simple rituals and glamors.

Total Recall: Lenya can use her ritual skills to achieve a near eidetic memory of past events.

Combat Virgin: Lenya has no particular interest in or aptitude for physical combat, and much prefers to boil someone's blood from the comfort of a ritual circle. She views guns with a europeans suspicion and will require significant instruction from her teammate to become proficient in any kind of face to face combat.

The Lure of Knowledge: Lenya is fundamentally motivated by a quest to gather arcane knowledge for herself and her coven. This has in the part led to some questionable tactical decisions.

Equipment:

Little Briefcase of Horrors - Lenya carries a briefcase with a variety of ritual implements including knives, blood, incense and other equipment.

There Aren’t Many Like it but This One is Mine: Lenya carries an athamae which was custom made for her on  the day of her birth. It’s exact origin is a carefully guarded secret of her coven and she keeps it concealed within an expensive fountain pen.

Rings on Her Fingers and Bells on her Toes: Lenya wears hand crafted jewelry of silver and polished copper. She uses these as vehicles for rituals performed earlier. The materials are expensive and time consuming to prepare.

Point and Shoot: Lenya has recently purchased a glock 9mm because the internet suggested that this was the best choice. It is currently considerably more dangerous to her than to the enemy.

Make a Note of It: Lenya is never seen without a notebook and pencil. She keeps notes obsessively.

Corporal Buren breathed a sigh of relief as the combat cars raced through the line of Slammer’s Infantry. Vehicle crewmen viewed infantry as borderline suicidal, going into battle with no more protection than a suit of ceramic body armor but he knew from conversations with the grunts that they view vehicles as large, obvious death traps.

“Pull through Chalkin, Ill have to speak with the Grunt’s,” he yelled through the intercom. Gunfire still snapped behind them but the volume was definitely slacking now that the grunts were lighting up the buildings. It was remarkable how quickly the locals had cleared the streets. It always was. With a grunt he lifted himself over the side of the crew compartment and slid down the iridium armor with the ease of long practice, unslinging his 1cm sub machine gun as he hit the ground. An infantry man was rushing towards him, a faded name tape on his chest read ‘Kunst.’ 

“Glad to see you Sarge,” he yelled over the howl of fans, another combat car slid into view, followed by another. Insurgent and Idiot Child. Four cars left it seemed, although Trooper Caldwin’s Idiot Child was dragging some frenching behind it like a dragons tail. Looked like it had a nacelle out too, by the way it kept scraping the ground on its port side.

“Bandits hit us with buzzbombs from the roofs, took out the Six and Five before we even knew they were there. I guess that makes me acting Six for Item Three. Looks like they knocked out the commo at the same time. I estimate at least a company of professional infantry plus god knows how many indge irregulars.”

He saw an ugly plume of smoke rising from the direction of the base camp.

“I reckon that freighter dropped something unpleasant on the FB, got to figure its hostile.”

“We got wounded too, via plenty of wounded, you got medics along?”

THere was the a distant shump, shump sound. The word “Mortars!!” tore from a dozen throats.

“Item, goose it!” Buren yelled into his helmet mike, they had to keep moving to avoid the shelling.

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