Zola Malfeazium

Zola "Heterodyne" joined the story recently in an attempt to take over Castle Heterodyne. She's very much the anti- Agatha: she's flashy where Agatha is subdued, she's overdressed where Agatha dresses practically, she plays to the crowd where Agatha causes the crowd to play to her. And above all, she's not really a Heterodyne, whereas Agatha most definitely is a Heterodyne. This by itself would justify labeling her as a villain, but there's more.

Zola makes her first appearance in Mechanicsburg after descending from an airship, of modern design (as some quiet detective work by Vanamonde von Mekkhan has established) and thoughtfully adorned with the Heterodyne trilobite sigil. She's dressed in a flamboyant pink outfit that matches the airship and catches the eye of the crowd. She delivers a bombastic oration (nauseating Agatha and Krosp), summarily deals with the Black Squad that tries to stop her, and begins a grandiose procession to Castle Heterodyne, with the enraptured crowd right behind her and her personal retinue marching right alongside.

Once she's inside the castle, however, the picture changes. She and her minions (such of them as have survived the castle's profusion of booby traps, anyway) link up with Professor Tiktoffen, long-time castle "insider," and start to scheme -- not to repair the castle, as she said to the crowd, but to kill it. The outline of a conspiracy begins to appear ... Zola and Tiktoffen have been sent to usurp House Heterodyne, on behalf of shadowy conspirators beyond who see Castle Heterodyne as a key to legitimacy, or at least credibility. Whatever plan these conniving scoundrels had been hatching, however, got upset badly when a real Heterodyne heiress (i.e., Agatha) appeared. This forced an acceleration of the campaign, and in particular, the introduction of Zola into the castle before the conspiracy was really ready for it. Tiktoffen doesn't like this, but what's done is done.

The full shape of this conspiracy isn't clear yet. The shocking pink airship that disgorged Zola still harbors Duke Strinbeck and Baron Oublenmach -- "harbors" in much the same way as a tsetse fly might harbor trypanosomes -- who are watching her every move, at least until she's inside the castle. They see the injuries to Baron Klaus Wulfenbach as an opportunity not to be missed, and Oublenmach (despite some hesitancy by Strinbeck) pushed up the schedule for Zola's invasion of the castle -- let's call a spade a spade here -- in response. The conspirators obviously have a great deal of backing, but we don't know the details.

Keep an eye on this chick. She's trouble.