The Pearl Real Name: Jane Drummond Age: 24 Height: 5'8" Weight: 145 lbs. Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Complexion: Dark Hometown: Near Jefferson, DC, the capital of the Dominion of NA. Background: "Me, I live out east of the city on a riverside estate in Prince Edward's county. Inherited it from my beloved parents, whose ancestors made a killing in growing cotton and tobacco for centuries. The Drummonds have been in Maryland since the seventeenth century. Cotton isn't king anymore, but we still live like kings. Grandfather Drummond was smart enough to see the future in industry, and invested in arms factories and textiles back around the War of 1860 with New France. I'm an only child, so I inherited all that when Mom and Dad got shot about three years ago. Now I use their wealth to support my adventuring ways, and our home to house my assistants. And to throw parties of course. I've got a family reputation to keep up." " Some of you have probably never heard of the insidious Doctor Amoeba. He's a renegade New French alchemist who invented a shrinking potion back in 1929 for the LaPonte Chemical corporation. They had assigned him to analzye some drug they had gotten ahold of. He spent all the money they gave him on his magical research. Then the company went bellyup because the Board of Directors had been spending company funds on stock speculation. When the Stock market crashed on Black Tuesday, the company went bankrupt in about two hours time. He took off on his own with everything he could grab and struck out on his own. I first ran into him in '30, when he tried to make off with the treasures of the Czars on display at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Czar Nicholas IV had sent the jewels on tour as a money making measure. The depression was hitting Russia hard too. Anyway, my Uncle Raymond runs the museum, and I decided to investigate. I ended up having to fight him in a blimp over the Hudson. We saved the jewels, but Amoeba got away. Ever since then, we've clashed repeatedly. I guess you could call him my archenemy. I doubt either of us actually knows the other's real name. If he heard about Jane Drummond, socialite and heiress, he wouldn't know it was really The Pearl he was hearing about. And if I heard his real name, I wouldn't recognize it. I think he's New French though. He certainly sounds like it." Jane Drummond is the only child of Robert and Elaine Drummond, who were shot during a bank robbery three years ago. She grew up wealthy, privileged, and bored. She spent a lot of time with her distant relative, Dr. Richard Drummond, also known as 'Doc', who lived with the family. He taught her some simple magic, some science, how to fight, and how to keep her parents from catching her doing things she wasn't supposed to be doing. Depressed after her parent's death in a bank robbery, she was headed towards being mostly worthless when she went to visit her uncle Raymond in New York and ended up helping to thwart a robbery by Dr. Amoeba. It was the most fun she had ever had. She decided to take up the identity of a 'Pulp Heroine', putting her wealth and talents to work. Since then, she's clashed with NACOs, spies, various crazed archvillians, gangsters and many others. Currently, she's in Trier looking for her cousin Amanda who was studying at the University there and has now gone missing...She expects Dr. Amoeba is probably to blame. When in doubt, it's usually his fault. The Pearl in action: I hate high heeled shoes. People often ask me why I hate them so much, and all I can say is that they get in your way when you're running for your life like I had to last March at Ella Fitzgerald's party. I fled across the living room, staggering on those damnable high heeled shoes, trying to dig my derringer out of my purse. The blackhooded minions of the 'insidious' Dr. Amoeba elbowed guests aside and broke expensive furniture as I ran out the door...onto the balcony. Good old Scott tripped one of the thugs, buying me some precious time. His novels are a bit cheesy, but he's a good sort. I winced when I saw them break one of his expensive wine bottles over his head. But that gave me the seconds I needed to kick off those blasted shoes and leap up onto the railing. I looked behind me, and saw to my relief this was the balcony that overlooks the Potomac. You see, the Fitzgeralds have a nice penthouse apartment in Riverside Apartments, by the banks of the Potomac in Charlestown. One side has a balcony overlooking the river. The other balcony overlooks the street. Luckily, I picked the right one. I couldn't use my derringer. People were watching, and that just wouldn't match my public image, not that leaping off the balcony would do wonders for it either.. Luckily, I had those shoes handy. I tossed one of them spike first at the lead goon. He tripped and fell on the other one. Their three companions now emerged, two of them with guns. Time for me to leave. "It was a wonderful party, Ellen! My best wishes to you and Scott! See you later!" I turned and dived off the balcony into the Potomac, tugging on my earring to alert Doc so I wouldn't have to swim all the way home. ****** " By the time I got upstairs, the gunfire had begun. Three of Amoeba's goons were dragging Angela up a rope ladder while two more kneeled behind a bed in one of the bedrooms, firing at the police and DBI agents. They must be expecting to be picked up from the roof. I ducked into a side room and sprinted over to the window. Looking up, I could see the goons on the ladder were most of the way up by now, about to hoist Angela into a blimp. How on God's green earth had Amoeba snuck a blimp over the estate without anyone noticing? Does no one ever look up anymore? Whatever...time to go to work." ****** Personality notes: Jane Drummond has two personas. One of them is a fluff-headed socialite, her public persona. The other is her real self, which is much more competent and intelligent. She has a keen mind, although until recently, she didn't make full use of it. She has many of the prejudices of the wealthy, though she is a bit more open minded than most. She is very friendly and likes to be around people. She gives generously to various causes and is quite compassionate. Too compassionate, really...she is rather vulnerable to people being used as hostages to manipulate her, though having kept her real identity a secret, this has rarely been a problem. She's also just a wee touch paranoid at times, mostly the result of the strain of keeping up two seperate personas and lives. Skills: The Pearl is a fairly skillful unarmed fighter and a very good pistol shot. Athletic and agile, she can move quickly through urban areas from building to building without needing to use the ground. She has some scientific knowlege which occassionally is of use, but she is better at, though still a rather minor practicioner of hermetic magic. Mostly she only uses magic for divinatory purposes, preferring to rely on weapons and her fists for combat situations. She speaks several languages (English, French, German, Italian), but is only really fluent in English and French. She also has a mixture of magical and technological gimcracks and gizmos and is especially fond of smokebombs.