About Herman SmithHerman Smith (also known as Hermann von Schmidt) is a 1/2 German 1/2 English man born in what was German East Africa and is now Tanzania. He mother is Jewish and so he also considers himself Jewish (although this is NOT widely known). He is one of the few people who has dual British and German citizenship. He is a celebrity Veterinarian. Although he is quite good technically his fame comes from his almost supernatural ability to work with animals, and to get them to change their behaviour, He is what would today be called an animal whisperer. He is always accompanied by his good friend (he does NOT ever use the word pet) the monkey Bobo He has many contacts in Britain and Germany. He has, in fact, done low level (courier and contact) missions for BOTH MI 6 and the Abwehr. Mechanically, a Courtly Hunter with some Fey (Gnomish) traits. Early History:
The interesting history of Hermann starts with his parents. His father Wilhelm von Schmidt was the third son of a quite minor branch of the German gentry. As the third son he had to have a profession and chose Medicine, becoming a well established Doctor. His mother Anna was a quite well off English girl of the Jewish faith although she looked like a typical English rose. She met Wilhelm while she was on the Grand Tour and they fell in love and got married. Although just about nobody in Germany knew that she was Jewish she found the antisemitism of Germany to be significantly worse than it was in Britain and almost unbearable. So she and Wilhelm decided to make a new start in German East Africa. They settled down there and in 1904, Anna became pregnant. Just before she was about to give birth, a tropical monsoon hit the remote village where they lived, destroying almost the entire village. Desperately in need of shelter, the couple went to a nearby ruin that was shunned by the locals as a place of great evil, never to be entered under any circumstances. The ruin turned out to be a largely intact temple overgrown by the Jungle. Based on the carvings and mosaics and pictures the temple seemed to be to some kind of Monkey God. The artwork and the temple itself was remarkably advanced and well maintained, clearly from some civilization significantly ahead of anything the local natives were thought to ever have reached. But the style was quite different from that of Egypt, in fact it bore significant similarities to the artwork depicting Hanuman (Hindu God) and the temple style itself was almost Mayan in nature. There were no difficulties with the birth of the baby. From a fairly early age, however, it was obvious that there was something seriously different about Hermann. The most noticeable thing about him was that he had this amazing ability to befriend and influence and understand animals. Sometimes it almost seemed like he could speak with them. While this was true in general it was especially true of a young orphaned female gorilla who basically decided that she was Hermanns sister and nothing anybody could do would persuade her otherwise. As he grew up other strange abilities surfaced, more or less under his control. He studied medicine under his father although he largely applied it to animals. Clearly he was destined to become a veterinarian When The Great War broke out it had a significant influence on Hermann, Most importantly, it showed him how senseless and brutal and awful war could be and turned him into a life long committed pacifist. But it also started his celebrity. At the age of 12 he was acting as basically a nursing aide in the field hospital run by his father when the hospital was hit by an epidemic of Malaria. Almost all of the Europeans were severely affected while the local populace were nearly unaffected. With little choice he took over command of the hospital and managed to nurse almost all of the affected people back to life. The patients included both high ranking Germans and some high ranking British Prisoners of War. Although many doubt it, several people also credit him with the wave of animals that came in to basically guard the hospital, eating up all the mosquitoes that came. For his actions he gained recognition both from the German government and, later, from the English government. This was instrumental in the fact that he was allowed to have Dual Citizenship (although both countries keep the fact quite quiet).
Recent History:
After he became an adult Hermann has become a quite famous (as far as it goes) veterinarian. The combination of his social status, good looks and personal charm and uncanny ability to understand and work with animals has made him a celebrity sought out by the rich, famous and powerful. His easy entry into the high society of both Britain and Germany has led to his "recruitment" by both organizations. He has only done very low level work for either organization. Things like courier work, arranging introductions and the like. He has spent considerable effort trying to figure out what the heck the Monkey Temple was and how he came to be what he is. His best guess right now is that the Temple is some kind of portal to other worlds, other dimensions and that he was born somewhere else (Fey realms?). He has used his and Bobo's abilities on several occassions in order to help friends or to fight injustice. Bobo makes an EXTREMELY good thief with her nearly human intelligence combined with her climbing, small size and stealth. Bobo has recovered stolen objects when the law was unable (or unwilling) to do so, as an Ape she has driven off a lion that was stalking a child, as just a friend she has made the last days of a dying woman with no family far less of a trial, Herman himself has intervened several times to stop riots, lynchings, muggings or the like. Its amazing what a suddenly rising fog that causes people to lose all interest in their surroundings (Euphoric Cloud) or how a mugger can lose interest in his victim when an eagle suddenly swoops down from the sky and attacks him (Summon Natures Ally). With the rise of Nazism in Germany he has started to take a more active role in helping the Jews. Although the Holocaust is still in the future life for Jews has already become difficult. Crimes or associations that would be ignored or get fines when committed by Aryans can send Jews to Dachau. Herman and Bobo have intervened once to save 3 prisoners from Dachau. One was a highly influential Jewish Rabbi, one was a journalist, the third a Jewish Communist with significant influence in the Soviet Union. Hermann went to Arthur Rosenberg and convinced Arthur to allow him to visit Dachau to see for himself how the Reich was dealing with things. Once in Dachau he offered to take the Camp Commander Eicke and all his administrative staff out to a fancy restaurant, perforce leaving his monkey Bobo behind since she clearly couldn't go to a restaurant. Left alone in the office, Bobo found which barracks the prisoners were being held in (all were considered important prisoners and held in the same VIP barracks). That night, Bobo and Herman snuck into the camp (not too difficult as the guards were looking into the camp and unprepared for an Ape able to climb sheer walls with ease). They proceeded to the barracks where a disguised Herman said he was here to free anybody who wished to leave He took those who wanted to risk the escape (about 1/2) and they made their way towards the barbed wire exterior. Suddenly, a strange fog rolled in covering one of the guard towers (Euphoric Cloud) and, concealed from the now unwatching guards, they headed for the barbed wire and quickly cut it and exited. All of the prisoners were provided with clothing and some money but most were, perforce, left to their own devices. The 3 that he had come to save were taken to Wilfred Israel who managed to sneak them out of Germany. Fearing what would happen to him if he revealed that there had been a mass escape, Eicke decided to conceal the escape from his superiors. Jewish saboteurs, it turned out, had managed to burn down the barracks killing all the inhabitants within.
Personality/Motivations:
Herman is a charming, gregarious person who wants nothing more in life than to help other sentients, both people and animals. His most obvious character trait is compassion. He has a huge sense of empathy for others and will try to help wherever possible. He acts on both the local scale and the large scale. If he sees a cat being abused, he'll intervene. If he sees a puppy needing a new home he'll find a home for it. He'll give change to a homeless person, he'll break into a jail to free an innocent victim of the Nazi regime. But he is also trying to do his bit in making society as a whole better. He'll use his influence to try and get stronger animal cruelty laws passed, he'll use his celebrity status to try and convince some Germans to partly reign in the Nazi party. But he recognizes that he needs to maintain whatever influence he has by acting discreetly. He considers himself BOTH a German and a Brit and has deep personal ties and loyalties to both nations. However, he despises the Nazi party and what it is doing to Germany. He will do whatever he can do to help reduce the power of or redeem the Nazi party. Like many people he sees a possible war in the future and desperately wants to stop that happening. He saw the Great War and it does NOT need to be repeated. Technology has advanced and a new war would be even nore disastrous than the Great War was He is also almost driven to understand what the Monkey Temple is and what the heck he is, to figure out where his abilities come from.
Alignment/Morals:
He is something approximating Neutral Good in alignment. He strongly dislikes hurting people and especially killing them but he will (reluctantly) do so if the end is sufficiently important He has no problem at all lying, cheating, stealing etc for a good cause as long as no innocent gets hurt. He recognizes that the law is an ass :-) The Neutral above (on the Law/Chaos axis) is because he does have a strong code of personal conduct but has no respect at all for the law per se. So, 1/2 Lawful, 1/2 Chaotic balances at Neutral He hates and detests any form of racism or discrimination. People should be judged by who they are and not by their skin colour, religion or sex.
Contacts:
Note that while many of these are actual people sometimes their histories have been slightly altered to fit the timeline Nina Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton Hermans early celebrity status brought him into contact with Nina and she became very impressed with the young man, both with his ethics and with his abilities. They have since become firm allies in their attempts to improve the state of Animal Rights in the Empire (especially in Britain). She is his prime entry into the highest levels of British nobility. It was her influence with the British Foreign Secretary George Curzon that allowed the British to accept Herman's German citizenship Theodor-Gottlieb von Hippel Member of the Abwehr and Herman's main contact in that agency, the two first met when Hermann saved his life in Africa during the Typhus epidemic in the Great War hospital. Frank Foley Berlin Office of MI 6 and one of Hermanns contacts with MI 6. Foley met Herman when he hired him to fix the behavioural issues of his beloved Bulldog Max. They became fast friends and Frank enlisted Herman as a very low ranking member of MI 6. Wilfrid Israel Anglo - German philanthropist who actively helped Jews to escape from Germany. He was introduced to Herman by Frank Foley. Herman worked with Wilfred to save several people from Dachau. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck Retired german politician. Paul was the head of the German Army in East Africa in the Great War. After the Typhus inicident he came to give Hermann a medal for his work in the hospital and he became something of a mentor to Hermann. It was he who was largely responsible for Herman obtaining dual citizenship when he would have otherwise been forced to disavow his German citizenship Adolph RosenbergHead of the Thule Society and head of the Nazi party Office of Foreign Affairs (NOT the government one, the party one). Hermann and he became associated when Hermann contacted the Thule Society hoping for insight on the Monkey Temple. In exchange for the Society getting a report on the Temple (a place now in British Tanzania and so not readily accessible to the Society) Hermann was given access to the Societies resources. Herman absolutely loathes Alfred and everything that he stands for but Alfred IS a very good contact and he has managed to conceal his disdain from him. Alfred both likes and respects Hermann and is fascinated by the few abilitles of Hermann that he knows about (basically, the Wild Empathy and Speak with Animals abilities). Aleister Crowley - Another contact made by Herman in an attempt to understand the Monkey Temple. Crowley had an immensely broad knowledge derived from several cultures and was able to point out all sorts of similarities that the Temple had with other sites (some of this was possibly even correct :-)). In order to get access to Crowley and his knowledge Herman had to reveal more of his abilities than he was comfortable with (basically, his spells but NOT Bobo's abilities). They've remained in contact ever since, neither particularly liking or disliking the other but bound by a mutual respect and common interests. Stats:
Male human hunter 4/monk VMC Init +3; Senses Perception +11 AC 14, touch 14, flat-footed 10 (+3 Dex, +1 dodge) hp 40 (4d8+8) Fort +7, Ref +8, Will +6 Speed 30 ft. Melee unarmed strike +3 (1d6) Hunter Spells Known (CL 4th; concentration +8) . . 2nd (2/day)—burst of radiance (DC 16), euphoric cloud (DC 16), summon nature's ally II . . 1st (4/day)—cure light wounds, entangle (DC 15), faerie fire, frostbite, summon nature's ally I . . 0 (at will)—create water, detect magic, detect poison, guidance, light, stabilize Innate spells known(CL 4th; concentration +7, 1 extra per/day of any) . . 1st (1/day)—speak with animals . . 0 (1/day)— dancing lights, ghost sound(DC 13), prestidigitation Str 10, Dex 16, Con 15, Int 12, Wis 18, Cha 16
Racial Abilities
Feats Healer's Hands - Human
Traits Wandering Healer, vagabond child, naturally Gifted Race Human but with 2 gnome traits (Fey Thoughts, Gnome Magic) Skill Points (7 (Class) + 1 (Int) + 1 (Human) +2 (Background) +1 (Favoured Class) = 12 per level = 48 Skills Acrobatics +10(4), Bluff +10(4), Athletics +7(4), Diplomacy +10(4), Disguise +7(1), Disable Device +10(1), Handle Animal +10(4), Heal +12(4) (+15 to treat common animals, but +1 to treat other creatures), Intimidate +9(3), Knowledge (geography) +6(2), Knowledge (nature) +5(1), Knowledge (planes) +5(4), Linguistics +3(2), Perception +11(4), Sense Motive +8(1), Stealth +10(4), Survival +8(1) SQ animal companion (ape named Bobo), animal focus (4 minutes/day), hunter tactics, improved empathic link, nature training, track +2, wild empathy +7 Combat Gear healer's kit; Other Gear masterwork thieves' tools, surgeon's tools, veterinarian's kit
|
|
