Otto von Kaunitz

Overview

Baron Otto von Kaunitz is a 38-year-old Austrian aristocrat of considerable charm and absolutely no genuine moral conviction. Outwardly, he is a witty patron of musical innovation and the arts. Privately, he serves the Brotherhood of the Open Measure as intelligence operative and society infiltrator — not from ideological commitment but from a hunger for power and the simple fact that the work intrigues him.

Kaunitz joined the Aeternum Choir because ordinary life bored him. The cult offered something interesting — and, more importantly, the work of identifying threats and gathering intelligence feeds his need for intellectual engagement and social superiority.

Physical Description

Classically handsome in the manner that makes others feel inadequate merely by standing near him. Blonde hair, blue eyes, athletic build maintained through fencing and riding. He dresses with impeccable elegance and moves through society with the ease of someone for whom doors have never remained closed. His charm is genuine in the sense that it is not effortful — he simply assumes he will be liked and is rarely disappointed.

The most telling feature is his eyes: blue, intelligent, and utterly empty. When he smiles, the smile does not reach them.

Statistics

Skills

• Charm 70%
• Psychology 65%
• Persuade 60%
• Disguise 50%
• Spot Hidden 60%
• Stealth 55%
• Fencing 65%
• Riding 70%
• Firearms (Handgun) 50%
• German (Native) 90%
• French 80%
• Italian 60%
• English 55%

Personality

Smooth, charming, calculating. Kaunitz presents himself as a cultivated gentleman with refined tastes and an interest in artistic innovation. Behind the facade are cold eyes and a calculating mind that views people as puzzles to be solved and pieces to be manipulated.

Key Traits:

• Charming affectation: Performs charm; it is not genuine but polished
• Intellectual vanity: Believes himself smarter than everyone else
• Boredom: Ordinary life and ordinary people fail to hold his attention; the work intrigues him
• Overconfidence: His track record of success makes him careless with threats he deems beneath him

Daily Patterns

Role in the Brotherhood

Kaunitz is the Brotherhood’s eyes and ears in Vienna’s high society. He attends the most prestigious salons, balls, and diplomatic gatherings, noting who asks questions, who shows unusual interest, and who might pose a threat. He reports directly to Herzfeld, filtering incoming intelligence and assessing the cult’s exposure level.

He is not a true believer. He serves the Brotherhood because:

1. The work fascinates him
2. It gives him access to secrets and leverage over powerful people
3. It provides intellectual stimulation in a life otherwise dominated by tedious social obligations
4. He genuinely believes the Choir is powerful enough that opposing it would be foolish

Weaknesses

• Vanity and overconfidence: Kaunitz believes he is smarter than everyone around him. He may toy with investigators rather than reporting them immediately, giving them time to act.
• Boredom: He underestimates those who bore him, viewing them as unworthy of his serious attention
• Emotional distance: His lack of genuine conviction means he has no deep commitment to the Brotherhood’s goals — if pressured, he might abandon them

Interactions with PCs

Initial Approach (Session 2, Opera)

Kaunitz deliberately approaches Emma Wentworth at the opera, using flirtation as a cover for intelligence gathering. He is charming, flattering, and deliberately dismissive of Thomas Wyndham. He learns:

• Their names and composition
• That they’re staying at Palais Kinsky
• That they’re English visitors with military and aristocratic connections
• That Emma is their most socially engaged member

Follow-Up Intentions

Kaunitz intends to contact Emma again, cultivating what she might perceive as a romantic interest while using the relationship to monitor the party’s activities and intentions. He will:

• Invite her to salons and performances
• Offer to “show her Vienna”
• Introduce her to his social circle
• Extract information through pillow talk if the relationship advances

If PCs Identify Him as Threat

Kaunitz will switch from observation to active sabotage. He will:

• Spread rumors in high society to discredit them
• Arrange for them to be watched constantly
• Potentially arrange for their arrest on fabricated charges
• Warn Herzfeld that direct action is necessary

Combat

Kaunitz is competent with a sword (Fencing 65%) and acceptable with a pistol (50%). He prefers not to fight directly, instead employing hired muscle or using social power to neutralize threats. If forced into combat, he will fight competently but without great enthusiasm — he has more elegant tools available.

Session Appearances

Kaunitz should appear at major social events throughout the investigation:

• Session 7 (Aug 4): Opera intermission — first contact with Emma
• Session 8 (Aug 5–6): Von Thun’s salon or Imperial Reception — continues flirtation, gathers intelligence
• Session 8–9 (Aug 8): Masquerade at Palais Lobkowitz — will be present, observing all parties
• Sessions 9–10 (Aug 10+): If PCs are identified as threats, Alert Level escalates and Kaunitz becomes active in their surveillance

Final Notes

Kaunitz is the Brotherhood’s “respectable face” — the member who moves freely in the highest circles precisely because no one would suspect him of involvement in anything illicit. His danger lies not in direct violence but in his access to power, his intelligence networks, and his complete lack of moral constraint on how he uses information.

[!info] Keeper Only If captured, Kaunitz will be cooperative and informative — not from loyalty to the Brotherhood (which he lacks) but from a calculating assessment that survival and eventual release are more likely through cooperation than through silence. He will betray Herzfeld, Adler, and the entire operation if it serves his interests. He is the least ideologically committed member of the Brotherhood and therefore the most likely to turn.

Session 8 Update — Grand Masquerade (Night of August 8, 1814)

Kaunitz attended the Grand Masquerade in his official capacity as a senior figure in Vienna’s social and intelligence apparatus. He spent the evening watching from a pillar at the edge of the ballroom — drink in hand, eyes on the party, posture deliberately relaxed. His presence was felt by every PC who looked for him.

The Threat Against Varrio

At some point during the early socialising, Kaunitz personally approached Varrio and delivered a direct, personal threat. The exact wording is for the Keeper to fix in play, but the substance is canonical: Kaunitz made it clear that he knows exactly who the party are, what they have been doing, and what the consequences will be if they continue. He framed it as a courtesy — “I am telling you this so that you have the chance to leave Vienna with your dignity” — and delivered it with the polished smile that does not reach his eyes.

This is a meaningful escalation. Until tonight Kaunitz has worked through proxies, surveillance, and social pressure. Speaking directly to a PC and naming the threat is the moment he stops pretending and signals that Alert Level 3 is now in active enforcement — at least from his desk. Varrio is now personally marked.

During the Wächter Attack — The Walk Toward the Terrace

When the first Wächter dropped through the stained glass and the ballroom collapsed into screaming, Kaunitz did not run. He did not draw a weapon. He calmly walked toward the terrace doors, threading through the panicked crowd at his own pace, and was last seen passing through the terrace exit while women were still crawling under tables.

The detail matters: a man who walks calmly out of a ballroom while a creature is killing people in the middle of it is a man who is not surprised. Kaunitz knew the Wächter was coming, or at least knew that Adler had the command tuning fork and might use it tonight. His unhurried departure is functionally a confession of cult control to anyone perceptive enough to be watching him at that moment.

Whether any PC actually clocked the walk during the chaos is a Keeper call — there was a great deal happening — but the canonical fact is that Kaunitz was not surprised by the creature, and his exit was the exit of an insider managing his own extraction.

Current Status (top of Session 9)

• Physically: Alive, uninjured, off-site. Last seen on the terrace; presumably moved into the gardens and out of the palace via a side gate or a waiting carriage.
• Operationally: His cover as a respectable Vienna aristocrat is substantially intact — no PC has yet exposed him publicly the way Adler has been exposed. Kaunitz remains plausibly deniable to anyone who was not paying close attention to his masquerade behaviour.
• Politically: With Adler burned and Herzfeld alone at the University, Kaunitz is now the senior Brotherhood operative with intact social and intelligence access in Vienna. His next moves are likely to be damage control, target prioritisation, and direct pressure on the Order’s network.

Open Questions for Session 9

• Does Kaunitz move on Varrio first? Varrio is the named target of Kaunitz’s personal threat. Kaunitz has the network, the resources, and the motivation to act on that threat in the days before August 15. Carriages, fabricated charges, hired blades, social isolation — any of these are in his toolkit.
• Does he move on the Hartleys at Palais_Kinsky? The party’s accommodation is a known address. Kaunitz has the leverage to make that address untenable in 48 hours.
• Does he report to Herzfeld, or is he running his own operation now? With Adler exposed, the chain of command inside the Vienna Brotherhood has loosened. Kaunitz may be an active subordinate or may be making field decisions on his own intellectual judgement. The latter is more in character.
• Where does he turn up next? Kaunitz is a society creature. He will not vanish — he will be seen at a salon, a coffee house, the opera, or a private dinner. The Keeper should choose the location and the witnesses to maximise the social pressure on the party.

[!info] Keeper Only Kaunitz is the Brotherhood asset that survived the masquerade with the most operational capability intact. Unlike Adler (burned), Trautmannsdorff (in custody), and Vogel (humiliated), Kaunitz is still inside Vienna’s high society with all his contacts and all his deniability. He is now the most dangerous living Brotherhood operative the party has to manage. Treat his Session 9 appearances as the kind of pressure that operates through social channels rather than blades — a withdrawn invitation, a closed door, a friend who suddenly will not meet your eye, a footnote in a newspaper that mentions Varrio by name. The threat lands in pieces, not all at once.

Chapter 4 — Calcutta (October 1814)

Flight from Vienna

Kaunitz fled Vienna “south toward Graz” (Session 12) but kept going. Took the Adriatic route, secured passage east, and arrived in Calcutta weeks ahead of the investigators. An Austrian baron with letters of introduction is automatically accepted in British colonial society.

Calcutta Role

Cover: Austrian baron visiting for “East India Company investment opportunities.” Secondary: “botanical research.”

Function: Ghosh’s window into the British world. Watches the social scene, monitors the investigators’ movements, and feeds intelligence. Does not run cult operations (that’s Ghosh’s domain). Complements the Thuggee escort (Havildar Pratap Singh) who watches the investigators from inside their own party.

Relationship with Ghosh: Wary alliance. Ghosh is contemptuous of European methods but pragmatic about using a European set of eyes. Kaunitz serves because the Choir’s cause still aligns with his interests, and because opposing Ghosh would be unwise.

Already done: Dined with Ashworth twice. Mentioned “troublemaking Europeans from Vienna.” Poisoned the well before the investigators arrive.

Discovery and Exposure

The Recognition (Day 9): During the tiger hunt, an investigator recognises Kaunitz across a jungle clearing. The way he sits a horse, holds a rifle, gives an order. Something from Vienna clicks. This recontextualises everything from Phase 2: the investigators have been watched and managed from Day 1.

If exposed: Kaunitz flees. He is intelligence, not muscle. His value to the investigators is as proof of the Choir’s presence in Calcutta (useful for convincing Ashworth of the Vienna connection) rather than as an operational prisoner.

[!info] Keeper Only Kaunitz’s Calcutta cover is distinct from his Vienna persona but recognisable to anyone who knew him there. His overconfidence (same weakness as Vienna) makes him visible in social settings where he should be discreet. The recognition scene is designed around this: he can’t stop being a society creature even when his life depends on it.

Relationships

• Member of Brotherhood of the Open Measure — Intelligence operative and society infiltrator; not a true believer
• Reports to Albin Herzfeld — Provides intelligence to Herzfeld; handles high-society surveillance
• Romantically interested in Emma Wentworth — Approached at opera; intends further contact
• Warns Acharya Devendra Ghosh — Fled Vienna to Calcutta. Warned Ghosh the investigators are coming. Serves as Ghosh's window into British society.
• Manipulates Charles Ashworth — Dined with Ashworth twice. Mentioned 'troublemaking Europeans from Vienna.' Poisoned the well before the investigators arrive.