Battlerina Action Figure

Anastasia Volkhova: female Human Fast Hero 5/Charismatic Hero 4/Infiltrator 3
CR: 12     Medium Humanoid (Human)     HD: 5d8+5 plus
Anastasia (circa 1960)

4d6+4 plus 3d8+3 (66 hp)
MAS: 12
Init: +4     Spd: 30'     Def: 22 (+4 Dex, +8 Class, additional +1 vs. melee), t: 11, ff: 10
Attacks: (BAB +6; Grap +6); +6/+1 Unarmed Strike: 1d4 (20/×2) or +10/+5 PM Makarov: 2d4 (20/×2, 30', semi) or +10/+5 CZ 45 Holdout Pistol: 2d4 (20/×2, 20')
SA:
SQ: Class Features (Talents: Charm - males, Evasion, Favor, Uncanny Dodge 1), Improvised Implements, Sweep
Align: N     Saves: Fort +5, Ref +12, Will +5
Str: 10, Dex: 18, Con: 12, Int: 16, Wis: 14, Cha: 18
Starting Occupation: Creative (gain Bluff, Disguise, and Perform - Dance as Class Skills)
Action Points: 12     Wealth: +20 (Wealthy)
Rep: +8
Skills: Read/Write and Speak Russian (Native), English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish; Balance +14, Bluff +9, Disable Device +9, Disguise +11, Escape Artist +14, Gather Information +10, Hide +10, Investigate +9, Jump +8, Knowledge (Civics) +10, Knowledge (Streetwise) +10, Move Silently +10, Perform (Dance) +16, Profession (Intelligence Operative) +9, Search +9, Sleight of Hand +12, Spot +8, Tumble +12
Feats: Acrobatic, Advanced Firearms Proficiency, Combat Martial Arts, Defensive Martial Arts (b), Dodge, Mobility, Nimble (b), Personal Firearms Proficiency (b), Renown (b), Simple Weapons Proficiency, Skill Focus (Perform - Dance) (b), Trustworthy (b)
Gear: Makarov PM 9mm Pistol (and 2 box magazines w/ 8 rounds each) CZ 45 (and box magazine w/ 8 rounds); Lipstick (2 versions - Intelligence version w/ hidden compartment or Demolition version containing C4 - deals 4d6 concussion (10' rad, Ref ½ DC18); Jeweled Brooch (conceals a miniature microphone/bug), Compact Receiver (functions as signal mirror, short-range receiver, and camera w/4 exposures of film); Reinforced Dance Shoes (contains hidden lockpicks); Perfume Atomizer (as short range chemical sprayer - loadout varies by mission), Traveler Make-Up Case (w/ false bottom containing passports, currency, disguises, additional ammunition, and mission-specific equipment) Wristwatch (contains hidden Compass and very fine cutting wire), Other equipment as missions require

Age: born July 22,1945
Height: 5'5"     Weight: 110 lbs
Hair: Brown     Eyes: Brown
Appearance: Anastasia Volkhova is a graceful Russian woman in her early twenties, with dark hair usually worn in an elegant bun, striking brown eyes, and the poised, athletic build of a trained ballerina. Her refined beauty and effortless composure allow her to appear equally at home on a theater stage, at a diplomatic reception, or in the shadows of a covert operation. She has a small scar on the inside of her left wrist.

Background: Anastasia Volkhova was born in Perm on July 22, 1945, and recruited into the Winter Conservatory at the age of twelve. She completed her training four years later and, by sixteen, was serving as a Soviet intelligence operative. Following a mission in Berlin, she fled the program shortly before her eighteenth birthday and subsequently established herself as an independent agent.
    Anastasia quickly discovered that espionage was expensive. For several years she supported herself through a combination of legitimate performances, occasional contract work, and whatever resources she could acquire in the course of her operations, but by 1966 her finances were becoming increasingly precarious. While in London that year, she encountered a Barbie doll in a department store and realized that her unusual combination of beauty, fashion, ballet, international travel, and very real adventures could itself be marketable.
     The resulting Battlerina fashion-doll line was wildly successful and soon expanded into children's comics and a series of  novelettes. The stories presented highly fictionalized versions of Anastasia's exploits, transforming classified operations, dangerous adversaries, and occasional allies into colorful popular entertainment while providing her with an independent source of funding.

     The 1980s saw a major revival of the Battlerina brand.

The original fashion doll was reinvented as a smaller action figure equipped with increasingly extravagant combat gear, while a Saturday-morning animated series introduced the International Dance Intelligence Network (I.D.I.N.) and adapted Anastasia's Cold War adventures with only the most casual regard for what had actually happened.

     The concept was so successful, that the US government copied it to fund aspects of the Fifty-State Initiative.

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