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I Appearance 

Szasza Markovitch is a true beauty. Her father, Baron Nikolai Markovitch, was of dark Boldavian bloodlines, but her mother, Lady Jacqueline Dumont, was a blonde Averoignian, making Szasza a gold-haired brown-eyed pale-skinned charmer. She usually wears seductive red dresses, which work like magnets to Glantrian noblemen, and hides her paleness with makeup. 

Lady Szasza constantly uses Witches' Charm constantly, so she is usually the queen of the party (unless Countess Geneviève de Sephora is present...) But Prince Morphail has ordered her to stay in Boldavia, so she is seldom seen in the jet-setting parties of Glantri City. 

Although she is slightly older, she looks like she did when she was 25. 
 

II Habits & Quirks 

Lady Szasza is always hunting--men. She is a deadly seductress, whose mysterious aura makes her even more attractive. She always looks at men straight into their eyes. She speaks slowly and her voice is like black velvet. Her courtly manners are perfect, and she has learned to speak without the Traladaran accent many Boldavians have. 

However, if she does not like someone, she is quite different. She is a professional in the elegant insults, like speaking to only your companion but completely ignoring you. If she is angry, she can go completely out of control. Her voice becomes a deafening scream, usually yelling magical words for casting spells of destruction. 

She has been called by some, a manic-depressive. She is either gleefully happy or depressingly sad, wrathfully angry or amorously seductive, hot as a Belcadizan picante or cold as a Boldavian tomb. Her moods change faster than Caurenzan fashion. One moment, she will fall in love with any handsome and influential nobleman nearby. In the next, she might just as easily drink him dead. One might never live to see the next mood swing. She can particularly dangerous, when it comes to betrayal in any form, as she both jealous and vengeful. 

As she is the favorite ally of Prince Morphail, she can--and will--kill nearly anyone recklessly, trusting that the Prince will keep her alive for seven days and nights. 
 

III Background 

Lady Szasza is the only child of late Nikolai and Jacqueline Markovitch. Her father and mother became vampires soon after she was born, but they never told her. Baron Nikolai was an important servant of Prince Morphail, a powerful necromancer who was taught by Morphail himself. Lady Jacqueline, on the other hand, had no magical ability. 

Nikolai, however, resented the magical control Prince Morphail had over his wife, so he eventually allied himself with Prince Brannart McGregor to overthrow Morphail. Unfortunately, Szasza learned of her father's coup, and having already been charmed by Morphail, betrayed her parents to the Prince. Morphail swiftly executed Lady Jacqueline, to teach Nikolai a lesson in loyalty, and to prevent him from worrying about anyone else. 

Baron Nikolai was crushed. In the long night hours, he developed a spell, Vampiric Counterpart, to save his daughter from Morphail's vampiric control. On Szasza's twenty-fifth birthday, Nikolai planned to make her a nosferatu under his, not Morphail's' control. But Morphail had learned of his plans and made Szasza into one of his vampires. 

In AC 995, Baron Nikolai was murdered by Prince Morphail. Lady Szasza, still charmed and in love with Morphail, succeeded him as the sole heir. 

After this, however, Morphail turned his back on Szasza, having tired of the affair with her. Szasza felt herself betrayed, and begun developing a plan to make Morphail marry her. 
 

IV Web of Intrigue 

Baroness Szasza wants to make herself increasingly important to Morphail, so she allows him to use her to get close to the nobility of Glantri. She lures people with invitations to Vladimirov, where she charms them and kills them. The vampire pawns she creates, tend to become her short-time lovers and spies. Lady Szasza usually ensures that her pawns keep the Vampires' Law. This both widens prince Morphail's power and makes Lady Szasza important to him. If he kills the baroness, many vampires in Glantri are freed; vampirism will spread, and the pawns probably want a revenge against Morphail. 

The Baroness has also a rivalry with the other vampire barons of Boldavia: Baron Lazlo of Mariksen, Baroness Natacha of Pavlova, Baron Yuri of Palatinsk and Baron Piotr-Grygory of Kutchevski. She is very jealous of Morphail's attention, and constantly tries to backstab the others. She blackmails Baron Lazlo of his misbehaviors and openly despises the ugly Baroness Natacha. To the others, she plays a naive but charming lady, and even had an affair with Baron Yuri (wherein she tried kill him). She has also tried to kill the Baron of Kutchevski by revealing his nature to a group of vampire hunters. The hunters failed, and now Lady Szasza fears that Piotr-Grygory will learn her treachery. 
 

V Statistics and Style of Magic 

M12, Witch of the 3rd Circle; Str 16 Int 17 Wis 8 Dex 13 Con 14 Cha 18; AL C (D&D), CE (AD&D) 

Lady Szasza is a witch, but also favors necromancy. As a witch, she developed a set of curses as charms. As a necromancer, she inherited a wide repertoire of necromantic spells from her father, and has blackmailed some from Laszlo Wutyla. An example of the former is Szasza's Dozen Ravens*. An example of the latter is Nikolai's Vampiric Counterpart. An example of the two combined is Szasza's Vengeance, a powerful curse that is said to strike her killer. She deliberately lets people know about this spell, and that if she is slain, all hell breaks loose. 

She also brews the potions with witchcraft. Many of these are augmented by vampiric or mortal blood, and she has a quirk of making them appear like blood-red wine. 
 
 The Eyes of the Dead Man by Szasza Markovitch 
     Level: 3 
     Range: gaze 
     Duration: varies 
     Area: one person 

 Szasza's spell allows the caster gazing to the eyes of a dead body to see the last things he saw before dying. He sees one minute per level of action, but can hear nothing. The
     eyes can also be used on the undead, who get a saving throw against the spell. The  undead is also forced to watch his death as the caster sees it, which usually puts them
     to raging frenzy against the caster, or drives them away horrified. The mindless undead   don't care. 

     Szasza's Vengeance by Szasza Markovitch 
     Level: 6 
     Range: 30m 
     Duration: permanent 
     Area: one victim 

     Szasza's Vengeance is a powerful curse that can be only cast by a necromancer who is
     dying at the time of the casting. The spell requires only a very simple gesture and gaze,
     so usually even the dying can cast it. As the Vengeance drains caster of his
     life-energies, he can never be brought back to life. Szasza's Vengeance works in three
     different ways. First, the victim is instantaneously and permanently drained of two levels
     of experience. Secondly, three nights after the caster is killed, he comes back as an
     intelligent spectre with all his spell-casting abilities (except Szasza's Vengeance), but
     which is completely obsessed with killing the victim. The spectre vanishes as the victim
     dies, but if the victim is drained to zero levels of experience, he turns to a spectre and is
     left to haunt the place of his death. Thirdly, until the spectre tracking the victim is
     destroyed, the victim sees every night nightmares of his death, and the lack of sleep
     gives him -2 modifier to everything he does.