Hendrick Dolban

[Baboonicorn]

First Name: Hendrick
Last Name: Dolban

Appearance:
A small, slightly built man in his late fifties. Skinny but slightly out of shape (Str 10, Con 10) he still moves with a degree of precision beyond what might be expected for a man of his age (Dex 14, increasing on level up). He is somewhat shortsighted (no points in Spot) but considers himself to have an excellent eye for detail nonetheless.

Race: Chondathan Human
Age: 58
Height 5ft 4inches
Weight: 125 lbs
Eyes: Mid-brown
Hair: Faded to a mousy brown-grey, but dominated by silvery-white hair through his hair and beard.
Facial Hair Style: A short, neatly clipped beard and mustache.

Personality Profile:
A lifetime of service to the tyrannical Duke Illehhune has left him rather timid and self-serving, quite willing to place others in danger to save his own skin. With an exceptionally sharp mind (Int 18), he has a great degree of acumen in matters of management (Silver Palm background feat), and considers self-improvement by learning to be the pinnacle of achievement (Able Learner). Despite this, his cowardice and selfishness frequently hamper his efforts to see the bigger picture (Wis 10). While he attempts to be charming to strangers in a strange land, his innate disdain for people not of noble birth (he is not noble himself, but is an inveterate snob nonetheless) can make him rather rude and sarcastic to those he deems as "lesser" (Cha 12, points invested in Bluff and Diplomacy)

General Health: Good for his age, though vision failing and prone to colds in winter and hay fever in summer.
Deity: Waukeen, ostensibly, though more through lip-service than anything else. Often bids folk farewell with "Waukeen bless", though he frequently doesn't mean it.
Initial Alignment: Lawful Evil - though tends towards Lawful Neutral in non-pressured situations.
Profession: Scribe, keeper of books, steward, lackey.
Base Class & Proposed Development: Rogue (in the absence of an Expert class on BG)
Habits/Hobbies: Reading - typically non-fiction works that he believes will be "self-improving". Generating sufficient coin to finance an expedition to his homeland.
Languages: Chondathan (not IG), Common, Alzhedo, Thorass, several "dead" languages.
Weapon of Choice: A dagger, in the event that diplomacy and running away both fail him.

Background:
Born to a lower-middle class textiles merchant in Zazesspur, Hendrick's quick mind, eye for business and desire for comfort attracted him to a life as a lord's lackey, finding himself in the employ of the Duke of Dusk in his late twenties.

Life in the tyrant's castle engendered a sense of self-preservation in the man, and he endeavoured to move about quietly so as not to disturb his erratic master and his equally ill-tempered family unless required.

His ability to enlarge the Duke's already immodest treasury made the old tyrant name Hendrick as his steward - an appointment which almost led to his death when he accompanied his master to Castle Tethyr, barely escaping the blaze that started the Ten Black Days of Eleint and the Tethyrian Interregnum. He may have wedged his lord's door shut so that he was unlikely to be disturbed liberating some of his fortunes, though he will not admit to this to anybody.

Scarcely suited for life as a free agent in a country riven by chaos, he was fortunate enough to come upon some of his former master's vassals - unknown to him, members of the Knights of the Shield - who intended to gather a mercenary force in the other kingdoms of the Sword Coast to establish a government friendly to their own aims.

Eager to restore the order which he craved, Hendrick eagerly offered his acumen to the cause, and while not admitted to be a Knight himself, found himself dispatched to Athkatla and subsequently Baldur's Gate with a view to amassing sufficient fortune to bankroll the Knights' scheme.

Goals:
Acquire sufficient fortunes to hire and fund a mercenary expedition to his homeland.
On a personal level, acquire rare books, which he has a passion for collecting.

Possible Plot-Hook Ideas and Misc Facts:
Hendrick's decision to work for the cruel and tyrannical Lord Illehhune placed rather a wedge between him and his brother, a paladin of Helm in the Order of the Silver Chalice, who remains in the war-torn country, and as a result he attempts to appease paladins whenever he can out of a sense of guilt. (He is unaware whether his brother survives to this day)

His nephew Rikard, a guard captain who was instrumental in his escape from Castle Tethyr, will become the "Black Baron", a cruel and brutal warlord. While Rikard has not made this name for himself yet, this may make his uncle unpopular as time goes on.

While definitely avaricious and self-serving, Hendrick is astute enough to realise the value of good appearances, and will try to behave in a socially acceptable fashion at all times.