Rötschreck was known among House Flambeau as a fine Ignem specialist, with interests ranging from direct magic to alchemical processes such as Greek fire. When she helped found the covenant of Amurgsval, she immediately took up the task of vampire-hunting, due to the number of such creatures that were to be found in the area near the covenant. She became so effective at this that her Hermetic name, meaning "Red Terror" in her native Germany, became a euphemism among vampires for their innate fear of fire.

When not hunting vampires, Rötschreck was extremely reclusive. Grogs in Amurgsval still tell the tale of having sent a man-at-arms to carry news to her, only to later find him lying outside her sanctum, badly burned; the door had had its sanctum marking redrawn, apparently by a burning finger emitting a jet of flame that charred the wood an inch deep.

She was always known for truly incredible powers of concentration, and was able to throw destructive magicks around in pitched battle without losing control. When she lost the need for sleep after using Ignem vis in a longevity potion, people regarded this as a mere extension of this tendency.

Several years after taking on Boris as an apprentice, she ceased answering to knocks on her door; Boris spent some time learning the greatsword among the grogs before Gambrinus completed his training. Trays of food left under her door were later collected empty; any notes left on them were simply missing. Her state was a source of much misery and several bets among the junior magi, until, many years after she entered her laboratory, Visitor Somni noted an unusual preponderance of dreams occurring in the vicinity of Amurgsval. Investigating, the magi determined that Röschreck was asleep, apparently catching up on several decades' worth of dreaming!

When Rötschreck awoke, she claimed to have created a Philosopher's Stone, an object of such innate perfection that it perfected all it came in contact with. She had a containment vessel upon her lab bench that had turned to gold on contact with it, but upon her own contact with it, she was returned to youth and her longevity potion removed-- at which point a great number of dreams began to catch up with her. As she fell unconscious, she dropped the Stone, which promptly perfected her stone lab bench into a huge slab of pure rock crystal, then hit the floor of her laboratory and disintegrated into a waxy lump, having failed to perfect the entire covenant.

Investigation after she returned to the magi showed that the touch of the almost-perfect Philosopher's Stone she had created had not removed her Twilight Points. This led to some interesting philosophical debate, as it implies that Twilight Points are not a deviation from one's true nature.

Shortly thereafter, she married Lucis of Flambeau (who had been visiting for the past few years, waiting for her to get out of her lab) and the two went to Iberia to blow away Moors before they entered Final Twilight together, a few years later.