The Blog of Roon

(Now that Shirley’s secret is out, I can pass on his character sheet, as I sent it to Li. The Grand Ellipse was run in the GURPS system.)

Mr. Shirley Addam is a barrister in York, having passed the requisite examinations three years previously. Maintained by a patron, Lady Hester Davies, he takes criminal cases involving indigent defendants and greater miscarriages of justice than the usual run. Naturally he is overworked, though his pay is sufficient for him as he desires few amusements.

Shirley has seen a good deal of violence, and approves of it not at all. His parents, keepers of a small millinery shop, were mugged and murdered in the night streets when he was 15. He and his older sister Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) kept the shop running until Lizzie died of influenza three years later, at which point he sold it and used the proceeds to educate himself to the bar.

Shirley is participating in the Grand Ellipse so that the money will fund his practice; should he win, he intends to plead with the Queen for legal assistance for the poor.

Shirley is 25 years old, 5′7″ tall, 135 pounds, undistinguished brown eyes and brown hair (cut short to go under the necessary barrister’s wig). He favors high-collared shirts and fancy ties, is in fact a little bit of a dandy when his finances allow. He knows odd bits and pieces of several languages, since some of his work is on behalf of immigrants, but the only foreign tongue in which he is genuinely fluent is French, which he learned from a Quebecois whom he saved from a robbery conviction.

Here’s the fun part. Shirley is not Shirley. “Mr. Shirley Addam” is in fact Miss Elizabeth Addam, and her true age is 28. The real Shirley Addam died of influenza; since they could not afford a doctor at the time, it was relatively simple to hide who precisely died. “Shirley” studied law partly in order to be able to fudge the records beyond recall, which “he” did very successfully a couple of years back. “He” has passed for seven years. “He” is not sure whether Lady Davies has penetrated “his” disguise or not; if she has, she has said nothing about it, not even hinted.

I don’t have any plans for revealing Shirley’s secret; if “he” manages to pass all the way through the Grand Ellipse, I will be delighted. Let me know what I should do vis-a-vis equipment; I doubt he’d have anything elaborate, just clothes, credentials, writing implements and paper, and perhaps a few phrasebooks.

Stats:

ST 10
DX 10
IQ 14 (45 pts)
HT 11 (10 pts)

Status +2 (10 pts)
Patron: Lady Hester Davies (10 pts)

Advantages:
Empathy (15 pts)
Common Sense (10 pts)
Language Talent, 2 levels (10 pts)

Disadvantages:
Pacifism (self-defense only) (-15 pts)
Sense of Duty (the poor) (-10 pts)

Skills:
Criminology (IQ +2) (6 pts)
Disguise (IQ + 2) (6 pts)
Influence - Diplomacy (IQ + 2) (8 pts)
Law (IQ + 2) (8 pts)
Research (IQ + 2) (6 pts)
Shadowing (IQ + 2) (6 pts)
French (IQ + 2 + 2) (6 pts)

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 31st, 2004 at 1:24 pm and is filed under Grand Ellipse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.