"Professor" Regina Janus

 
       StDxEnInEdSo
UPP     7 8 7 9 9 7

Archaeology    1    Athletics      2
Brawling       1    Bribery        2
Computer Use   1    E-Whip         3
Forgery        2    Ground Craft   1
JoT            3    Pistol         1
Ride Animal    2    Survival       1

Age 32
Quote: "Well, this is not exactly my specialty, but I'm sure I could arrange something..."

History

Regina's real name is Valetta Legvo, and her home planet is Inthe, a TL9 agricultural world in the Regina Subsector.
She was born after a brief affair between her mother, a local rancher, and a visiting archaeologist which was surveying the region looking for Ancient sites.
The missing father figure influenced deeply her life as a child, and she became quite obsessed with the study of archaeology.
After her mother's death in an accident, Valetta sold the ranch and left her home to pursue her interest in Archaeology on Regina.
Even if this field of study had become more of an obsession than an hobby for her, dedication and enthusiasm alone proved to be not enough for the demanding standards of the Imperial College on Regina. Most probably, this kind of life was not the right one for Valetta, but she was too young and much too in love with the idea of becoming an archaeologist (like daddy!) to realize that pursuing this career was not a good move.
After the first year she started flunking exams, and coping with her new home, the higher Tech Level and to University life in general become more and more difficult.
Money was getting low. Her grades, at least in the theoretical courses, were getting low too, and expulsion from the University seemed near. In desperation Valetta let a middle aged professor seduce her. This move bought her a little more time, but she realized that her situation was unbearable, and her childhood dream was turning in a nightmare.
At the start of her third year on Regina she decided to run away and start a new life. She had not enough money for travelling to another planet, so she resolved to steal some artifacts from the University museum and sell them to the highest bidder.
Her first "transaction" showed where her real talents stood: good choice of timing, good choice of artifacts and a good choice of fencer helped her to gain enough money to break free and start a new life. She used part of the sum for a series of middle passages and promptly left the Regina Subsector. Since then, she has acquired a new identity as Regina Janus, along with fake archaeologist credentials. Regina even managed to earn a reputation as dealer in antiques and related goods.

She often sells her "findings" to museums and universities, or acts as a sort of archaeological bounty hunter, retrieving specified objects for a price. Regina is not exactly a criminal, but she often operates on the fringes of law, and took part in various smuggling operations and even all-out burglaries, always related to artifacts and other historically valuable goods.

She usually prefers to work alone, but can sometimes use some skilled help, especially when travelling through wilderness on remote planets. Her line of job may put her in dangerous situations. She doesn't likes violence per se, but she is quite able to take care of herself in case of need.

Personality

Regina is self-confident and has good skills in assessing people and situations. She likes her job, and works hard at it, probably as a way of redeeming her past failure as a legitimate archaeologist. She still tries to pass herself as a scientist, but any real expert would be a little suspicious about her effective knowledge of the field. She subscribes to magazines and reads books on the subject, but her choice is limited to the more popular and simpler texts (she can't really understand specialistic stuff): her selection of books and magazines can be a telltale sign that her credentials may be phony.
She knows about her limits in this, and hates the situation, consequently she tries to avoid prolonged contacts with her "colleagues".
Her goal in life is to finally amass enough money to either launch a major archaeological expedition or create some scientific organization or museum. She dreams to be able to regain a legitimate reputation in the field and avenge all her past failures, but this will probably be impossible: if she gained the notoriety she craves for someone could probably recognize her as Valetta Legvo, and she would have to face the scandal of her juvenile mischiefs.
Regina seems not interested in stable relationships. The few she had were usually brief and often quite far in between. This is partly due to the fact that she is constantly on the move, always on the trail of some rare object. Also, her first attempt to a serious relationship, the one with her professor at the University, left her emotionally scarred.
After that affair she decided (in a subconscious way) that she will never again use sex as a tool for obtaining what she needs... but sex and murder are the only two things she will not use in her work.
She tends to live and operate under a strict budget, prefers to travel by middle passage, sleeps in cheap hotels and rarely indulges in personal luxuries. This is part of her lifestyle, but when the situation requires it she doesn't object to spending a little more, especially for bribes or special equipment.

Appearance

Regina is of medium height, fit and moderately good looking. She has medium length, brown-reddish hair and she usually is slightly tanned.
There is a small scar on her left forearm (an accident on her home planet, when she was ten years old) and another one under her left shoulder blade (stray bullet during a "business transaction" with some smugglers).
Usually she prefers casual clothes which she finds both practical and comfortable.
Regina rarely opts for more formal clothes: usually she dresses up only for meetings with clients and for the rare dinners she sometimes has to celebrate one of her business successes.
In the same way, she does not usually wear make-up or jewelry.
She usually carries her E-whip (see below), pocket knife, mini electrical torch, small-size mechanical tools, waterproof notebook with pen, pocket computer, inertial compass, and electronically enhanced mini binoculars.
All the items listed (excluding the E-whip, which has been custom built for her) are surplus Scout Service equipment. As such, they can stand severe treatment in hostile environments.
If the situation seems to require it, she adds cloth armor and a revolver to her equipment.

Referee Notes

The alert Referee will undoubtedly notice some similarities between Regina and a well-known Solomani archaeologist of the past.
This is intentional: probably your players will spot the clues and conclude that Regina is a legitimate, if a little odd, archaeologist.
This is not true, and you should exploit the differences.
For maximum effect, have Regina hire the players for a difficult exploration of an Ancient site. Only when *real* Archaeology skills are needed (for example, in order to defuse some arcane device which threatens their lives) they will realize that Regina is not really trained for this kind of things. Keep in mind that she avoids working with other archaeologists and will try to hide her flaws until the very end.
She can act as a patron or fence for antiquities, even after the expedition, if she remains in good terms with the players.
She will probably hire them again for other jobs, especially when operating on the fringes of law. The reverse is also true: she will gladly help out the PC's in any archaeologically motivated venture, if they allow her to take a share of the findings, and take care not to reveal that her credentials are faked.

E(lectronic)-Whip

TL:12
LL: 5(?)
Length: 4m
Weight: 3,5 Kg.
The E-Whip was custom built by a TL 13 Robotic Lab which specializes in robotic appendages and waldos.
It is based on a modification of a TL9 taser whip used to drive cattle on her original planet. The original was just a whip which could deliver low electrical shocks at the tip.
The Electronic Whip is externally similar to a normal TL 4 Whip, but instead of being made of leather fibers, it is built with a strong flexible plastic which encloses a series of small metal cylinders.
Besides being usable as a normal whip, the e-whip offers two other interesting functions to a skilled user.
1) Tentacle.
On the e-whip handle there are a series of touch-sensitive controls which can be used to move around the flexible part of the whip like a robot tentacle. The cylinders which form the core of the whip are moved by magnetic fields generated by a thread of wires inside the whip core and powered by a battery placed in the handle.
At the end of the whip there are three small "wires" which can act as rudimentary fingers/feelers and are capable of relatively fine work, like turning a key or pushing buttons on a keyboard.
When used to grab or carry something around the tentacle has an effective strength of 2.
2) Taser
The cylinders forming the last 1 m of the whip can protrude needle-like spikes at the flip of one of the handle controls. The spikes are way too small to actually hurt anyone; they are designed to bypass clothing, fur and other light cover, reach the skin and deliver an electrical shock to the target.
This effect is powered by a dedicated battery in the handle and can be used two times before recharging. Damage is 3d6, armor protection is halved. In case of need, the primary battery (the one used to power tentacle movements) can be used to deliver a third, less effective discharge. Damage is 2d6. If this second charge is used, the device becomes a normal whip and needs recharging to use the tentacle functions.
3) Normal whip
Can strike at a distance of up to 3 meters, doing 1 point damage to the target. On a special result the end of the whip may entangle the arms, neck or other appendages of the target. Treat this effect as a Brawling hold, adding the whip skill of the attacker to his STR.
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