Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Davies" data-source="post: 8616751" data-attributes="member: 30538">Dr. Abraham van Helsing<img src="https://photos.smugmug.com/My-First-Gallery/i-L8VWMb9/0/f6962902/S/vanhelsing-S.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />"Abraham van Helsing" was a name made up by Bram Stoker (partially from his own name) while editing the various diaries and letters of the Dracula operation into a novel. "Martin Hessel", the name used for this individual in official British documents, is likewise known to have been an alias. Any record of the actual identity of this person was likely lost in the large-scale destruction of secret documents during the final stages of the November Revolution that brought down the German Empire in 1918. "Van Helsing" will be used for its familiarity hereafter. Very little that was stated about his background in the novel should be taken at face value. His comments about his "late son" were chosen to create a sense of sympathy between himself and "Arthur Holmwood", much like the unlikely account of the start of the supposed friendship between himself and "Dr. Jack Seward". Likewise, his comment about his supposed wife, imprisoned in an asylum, was part of a rather crude joke that he made, betraying a much more cynical attitude towards his patient than he had expressed so far. His official dossier reported that "Van Helsing" had been married, but that his wife had predeceased him and that their marriage had never produced any children. The accuracy of that assessment is open to question.That same assessment portrays him as a man driven to hunt "the undead" (a term that really was of his own coining, apparently) because of both his deep Roman Catholic faith and his scientific curiosity. These were indeed significant parts of his character, but the dossier failed to note that he was also quite patriotic. It is possible, even likely, that whoever put together the dossier, influenced by their own prejudices, believed that his Catholicism would contraindicate such a nationalist sensibility. This would be a costly mistake, but not the greatest made in this operation.In 1894, when "Van Helsing" was called in to assist in the clean-up of the Dracula operation, the British believed that he had already "eliminated" two vampires in Europe in the past decade, neither of which were "kindred" to Dracula. (This was considered important when he was contacted, suggesting that the King Vampire was even then regarded as a potential asset.) These were only those that whose existence, and the cessation thereof, the British could confirm; there may have been others. It is unlikely, given what he emphasized about "the power of combination" in addresses to the others involved in the operation after it turned into a vampire hunt, as well as his advanced age -- roughly seventy years -- that he acted alone, but nothing is known about these accomplices.Perhaps the most controversial aspect of his involvement in the treatment of "Lucy Westenra" was his use of blood transfusion. This was, prior to the official discovery of blood variation in humans*, an extremely dangerous procedure. Some have suggested that his actions were undertaken not to save the life of his patient, but rather to hasten her death and transformation into a vampire. This does not seem consistent with his expressed attitudes, but subsequent events make it harder to defend him. After staking the so-called "Bloofer Lady", rendering her helpless and immobile, he and Seward turned her over to British intelligence so that she, and not Dracula, would be their vampiric agent. His "fee" for this service was a pair of vials of her blood, ostensibly for his own experiments. However, the affair was not over, and it is likely that his true character began to emerge at this point.After eliminating the brides of Dracula and (seemingly) the Lord of Darkness himself, "Van Helsing" returned to his native Leipzig (or so he claimed.) It is now known that the vials of vampiric blood (and possibly samples that he illicitly obtained from "Mina Harker") were given into the care of agents of Abteilung III b, the military intelligence branch of the Imperial German Army. They used them, along with a number of other examples of mad science, to create the creature later dubbed "Orlock". It is unclear whether "Van Helsing" was aware of these experiments, but even if he was, he may have regarded them as a regrettable necessity.By 1898, his health was failing, and his death, by what seems to have been natural causes, was reported in 1900. But there is an ambiguity here, even, for no remains were to be found in the crypt where he was supposedly laid to rest when it was opened in 1931. The dreadful possibility exists that Dracula, or some agent of his during this period of inactivity, arranged for his great enemy to become ... perhaps not an ally, but a useful slave. Or perhaps some other weird tale ensued."Dr. Abraham van Helsing" -- PL 5Abilities:STR 0 | STA 1 | AGL 0 | DEX 3 | FGT 3 | INT 2 | AWE 4 | PRE 2Advantages:Assessment, Contacts, Eidetic Memory, Equipment 2, Fascinate (Persuasion), Favored Foe (vampires), Improved Aim, Teamwork, Tracking.Equipment:Stakes (Strength-based Damage 1), garlic, an allegedly consecrated host, other vampire hunting gear.Skills:Deception 6 (+8), Expertise: Civics 6 (+8), Expertise: Magic* 5 (+7), Expertise: Science 5 (+8), Expertise: Theology & Philosophy 7 (+9), Insight 6 (+10), Investigation 6 (+8), Perception 5 (+9), Persuasion 6 (+8), Stealth 6 (+6), Treatment 6 (+8).* INT-based ...?Offense:Initiative +0Unarmed +3 (Close Damage 0)Stake +3 (Close Damage 1)Defense:Dodge 3, Parry 3, Fortitude 2, Toughness 1, Will 8.Totals:Abilities 30 + Advantages 10 + Skills 32 + Defenses 8 = 80 pointsOffensive PL: 2*Defensive PL: 2Resistance PL: 5Skill PL: 5Complications:Faith--Motivation. Elderly. Physical Limitation (missing two fingers on his right hand.) Secret (vampire hunter, secret agent.) Subject to Orders. * The existence of blood types had been discovered by a handful of mad scientists in the years after Blundell, but their results were generally not well-accepted.</blockquote>

Verification