Kathryn the Red

Kathryn van Houten lived in Mystery, NH in the days leading up to the American Revolution. Her husband, Rudolf van Houten, was a tax col­lector for King George III. Rudolf’s job af­forded a life of domestic bliss for the pair. They moved into a large manor house in the hills overlooking Mystery, threw lavish parties, and mingled with local high society. Their wealth only grew as the English crown tightened its grip on the colonies.
Rudolf’s work kept him away from home for months at a time, leaving Kathryn to entertain herself. She was fascinated with her German heritage, particularly the stories of Hessian mercenaries. Kathryn used her con­siderable leisure time to practice swordplay, horseback riding, and marksmanship. Her interest even led her to have a specially-fitted suit of armor made. She was a popular woman about town and hosted banquets whenever she could. She would demonstrate her martial prowess to the delight of her guests, and word of her pe­culiar interests spread across the New Hampshire colony.
Unfortunately, Kathryn’s world came crashing down as the New World buckled beneath the weight of the Old. When war broke out between England and the colo­nies, an angry mob of revolutionaries attacked her husband. They tarred and feathered Rudolf, before parading him through the streets of Mystery and hanging him as a traitor. The trauma broke Kathryn and she abandoned the manor, taking only her equipment and horse with her. She met a group of Hessian mercenaries and demand­ed to join their company. The men were skeptical at first, but agreed to let her fight with them after hearing of her husband’s fate.
Kathryn earned the nickname “the Red” during the opening battles of the war due to her savagery. She led cavalry charges on the ranks of rebel riflemen, scattering her enemies before her. Her ferocity became a thing of legend and minutemen huddled around their fires prayed not to run into Kathryn the Red and her screaming Hessian butchers. Kathryn’s luck eventually ran out; before the close of the war she was captured and beheaded by rebels.
That wasn’t the end of Kathryn’s story, however. In the moments before her death, she vowed revenge on all who had wronged her. A crack of thunder split the air as her head left her shoulders and Kathryn’s spirit de­parted this realm, her soul taken before the court of the Unseelie Fey. Kathryn’s shade was given a choice: bury her rage and pass on in peace, or haunt the Earth as a dullahan, collecting spirits for the Unseelie and punish­ing those who’d wronged her. Kathryn chose the latter and returned to the land of the living as one of the Un­seelie’s headless riders. Kathryn the Red has plagued Mystery ever since.
Now legends tell of a headless woman astride a ghostly steed that haunts the hollows of Mystery. Once every thir­teen years, on the first new moon of autumn, Kathryn is unleashed to pursue four victims of the Court’s choosing; none escape her. This would be bad enough if it were the only time Kathryn could hunt her prey, but mortals des­perate for vengeance can offer up their children to the Un­seelie Court in exchange for her service. Kathryn the Red appears as the child disappears into Faerie.
Kathryn delights in these contracts most of all because she is not bound to the new moon during these hunts. Instead she is free to wander the Earth until she finds her target, spreading misery and woe as she goes. Locks and gates fly open before her, and those who observe her are struck blind. When she finally reaches her target she takes their head. She carries her own swollen, smiling, and rotting head in a satchel at her side.

Physical Description

Special abilities

Kathryn has carried her considerable martial ability into the afterlife. She is at home in the saddle of In­domitable, her spectral horse, and relies on hit-and-run tactics against her prey. Any who gaze upon her disem­bodied head are in danger of being blinded by power­ful magic. Her undead flesh and breastplate turn aside even the most grievous of injuries. All doors and gates throw themselves open to Kathryn, and she can tirelessly pursue her prey over great distances.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Kathryn the Red is a spirit of vengeance and violence that will not rest until her thirst for vengeance has been slaked; no one knows if her bloodlust can ever be sat­isfied. She derives a sadistic pleasure from hunting her victims, and she sometimes unleashes a wail when she closes in on her target.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Kathryn’s greatest ally is the Unseelie Court. The Court is comprised of malevolent faeries and horrible monsters with fearsome abilities. Their labyrinthine schemes are unknowable, but suffice to say they seek to fill the mortal world with chaos, pain, and death.
Kathryn is a mortal enemy of the Seelie Court. These faeries seek to prevent evil forces of their plane from bleeding into the realm of men. Kathryn the Red has also run afoul of ARCADE in her appearances, as well as Thomas Rhymer , the wander­ing magician and once-favored of the Queen of Faerie. Kathryn faced the costumed vigilante known as Minute­man when he was younger.

INDOMITABLE

Indomitable was Kathryn van Houten’s mount during the Revolutionary War, and even then he was a massive, ill-tempered beast. Now Indomitable is a terrifying spectral horse that serves as Kathryn’s loyal steed. He is a towering specimen who instills dread in all who come near him. He is invisible, save for his glowing red eyes, and is almost as fierce a combatant as his rider. He can outrun even most modern vehicles and, like his mistress, never tires.