Roderick Von Drake

created by Michael Babish

Permission character

Defining Traits

• member of The Von Drake Family
• a specimen of peak athleticism, capable of making almost inhuman leaps and sprints
• blessed with a silent gracefulness, enabling him to enter the most heavily guarded fortresses unseen and unheard
• can function in total darkness, or when otherwise deprived of his sight
• exceptionally charismatic, and famous for his (often inconvenient) romances
• accomplished fencer

Signature Equipment

The Von Drake Sword Cane

Smoke Bombs

History

Roderick Von Drake is the Most Famous Thief in the World. Ordinarily, anyone with such a title would already be in prison. In Roderick's case, however, no one has ever been able to catch him in the act. Furthermore, British authorities are hesitant to bring him to justice, since his most publicized adventures generally involve repatriating some piece of artwork back to England (he once recovered the Crown Jewels at the Queen's request).

Criminal Career

Roderick Von Drake has always been a thrill seeker. He became a thief mainly for the adventure it provided. However, he also takes great delight in humiliating the more arrogant members of High Society. He sees himself as a new breed of "Robin Hood" - stealing from the rich to entertain the poor. He usually prefers spending time with the lower class, whom he considers much more intersting and sincere than the typical upper class. As heir to the considerable Von Drake fortune, Roderick does not actually need the treasures that he steals. In fact he often (not always) either returns his plunder or gives it to someone who needs it more.

Roderick's style of theft is based on pure physical ability rather than high-tech gadgets. He is certainly not anti-technology, but he takes pride in evading secruity using the simple methods of stealth and sleight-of-hand. He begins heists with little or no planning whatsoever, relying on the knowledge that he can escape any situation he may encounter.

He leaves no calling card at the scene of his crimes. His only real trademark is the skill and silence with which all his thefts are done.

Roderick's Women

Roderick Von Drake adores beautiful women. Perhaps more importantly, he finds all women beautiful. With every women he meets, he almost instantly finds something wonderful about them to love. Women find themselves drawn to Roderick based on his reputation, his absolute self-confidence, and also on the pure sincerity and passion of his affections for them. Unfortunately, these same women often find themselves hurt and disillusioned when they discover that he feels the same passion for every other women that he meets. Although there have been several significant women in his life, Roderick has never truly been in love. Or rather, he finds himself completely in love with every woman. His affairs are always too short for him to actually cheat on anyone, however there are definitely some women who have been deeply hurt by his cavalier romantic ways.

Roderick would never seduce a women for the sake of his country, or even for the greater good. But although his motives are pure, he often find himself accepting help from his lovers. In England, it has become almost fashionable to testify as Roderick's alibi during his rare court appearances. A women who lies to a jury, claiming "Roderick was with me all of last night" has an excellent chance of spending the NEXT night with him in reality.

Reputation

Roderick would never risk the lives of friends or family, but there is very little else that he wouldn't sacrifice in order to humiliate an opponent. He has earned a reputation for being fearless and unpredictable. He would not, for example, think twice about tossing a diamond the size of a baseball into the gears of Dr. Mole's drilling machine.

As a result, he has become quite an intimidating character. No one fears him physically - after all, he's just a thin, British gentleman carrying a cane. Even if he does draw his sword (which he rarely does) he would never willingly kill anyone. However, he has a exceptional talent for finding flaws in even the strongest defenses. Therefore, anyone who looks Roderick in the eye does not see merely a single man. Instead, they see all the things that could possibly go wrong with their plans. Many opponents have been known to simply surrender rather than see everything they've built get destroyed. It is humiliating, to be sure, but often less humiliating than anything they would suffer at Roderick's hands.

Notable Exploits

With The Odysseus Group -- New York Chapter

• Aided a rebellion of super-intelligent gorillas who had been enslaved by The Kommandant, who had exploited their strength to harvest telluric-rish crystals to power the Third Reich's war machines. In the process, he met and became infatuated with Jaana Schmidt. See the Albertine Rift Mining Incident.
• Recovered the Empire State Building from supernatural thieves, restoring his reputation as the "Most Famous Thief in the World". See The Empire State Building Vanishment.
• Battled fishmen.
• Travelled to Berlin, where he narrowly avoided defeat at the hands of The Kommandant and his deathtraps. The experience proved to be so entertaining to Von Drake that afterwards he would regularly allow The Kommandant to capture him, in the hope of facing more imaginative threats.

Single-handedly

• Recovered the Crown Jewels.
• Stole (and still possesses) the original copy of Newton's Principia Mathematica.
• Stole a prized emerald necklace from the Cult of Spiders. See The Spider Temple.

Known Associates

Hank Barton

Doc Furious

Miles Thompson

Albert

Major Enemies

The Kommandant