Jaisen Santiago Dreyfuss

From Brass Goggles

Name : Jaisen Santiago Dreyfuss (prefers just “Dreyfuss”)

Age : 40

Nationality (place of birth) : Province of Tejas, New Spain (Now the Republic of Texas)

Physical appearance : 5' 11" medium build, rangy, early stages of middle-age fat, but still relatively lean. Habitually wears either brocade- or leather-fronted black, blue, or brown waistcoats/vests with center-placket broadcloth shirts and cravat, black stripe-legged (buff stripe) bib front trousers with the leather suspenders under the waistcoat, leg cuffs tucked into knee-high, deerskin-and-black-cowhide, buckle-and-lace, heeled moccasin boots (look like Navajo-pattern boot mocs, only higher).

Is never without his "possibles" bag, hung from left shoulder to right hip, which contains the military-standard quickstart firekit; powder and shot for the blunderbuss in inner sleeves of the body of the bag; small tin flask usually containing some variety of extremely strong liquor, journal with charcoal and graphite sticks; small short-handle hammer; roll of bone and steel needles, thread and sinew, and small leaf-bladed knife for clothing repair; occasionally used to carry food items (for trips on foot, for instance). On right shoulder to left hip is slung a flattened-gourd water bottle, covered in brown leather and stoppered with willow tied on stopper. Occasionally carries the blunderbuss slung over one shoulder or other; habitually wears Paterson revolver on hip rig on right leg; "bowie" knife hangs next to holster on same belt. basket saber hangs at left side, held in place by trouser-hook on scabbard. frequently carries crook-ended hickory cane, and limps from the left hip, knee, and foot, although he tries to hide it. Dreyfuss hates canes, but is often forced by necessity to use one when he's not in combat or in a forest of airship cables.

Profession / job title : Former mercenary/Banjo Player/Currently, Adventurer/Sometime Air Privateer Weapons of choice: 44 caliber Paterson revolver (Texas Ranger pattern); large-bore pistol-grip blunderbuss;straight-bladed gilt half-basket-hilted dress saber (looks like a bad copy of a military rapier, and the gilt is badly scratched and weathered); "Arkansas Toothpick" type boot knife; good with but intensely dislikes volley firearms; is able to use just about any weapon effectively. Adherent of the belief that all things can be weapons.

General Personality: Somewhat aloof, having been raised as an orphan, and having lost friends and individuals who were like family aboard his first command when it was shot down. Tries not to be arrogant or too judgemental, but occasionally fails miserably in both endeavors; can be just as mean and nasty as his former comrades-in-arms if the situation demands it ("well, you know, they're mercenaries; one pay call away from turning pirate, you know. And, their pay comes from being suspicious of everybody. But I try not to be that way anymore").

Has a very long fuse, and a tight rein on his anger, which is a good thing, because he has quite a lot of it, and it tends to cause damage when he lets it get away from him. Cruelty for enjoyment's sake, especially of innocents or defenseless individuals by persons in positions of power, makes his blood boil.

Courageous, loyal to the point of a fault (and beyond). Tries very hard to be scrupulously honest, but will lie to save others' feelings, or to avert catastrophe. Is absolutely (and somewhat humorously) terrified of any sharp object in a physician's hands.

Biography : Jaisen Santiago Dreyfuss, born to a white woman(Marian Parker) and her Natchez adventurer husband (Francois Dreyfuss), was only 1 year old when his parents went to Parker's Fort to visit his mother's relatives, leaving him in the care of a neighboring family. Both parents died in the Comanche attack/incident that made the little fort famous, and Dreyfuss was raised by a blacksmith (name lost or unrecorded) of the Moses Austin Colony.

Dreyfuss served in the ragtag excuse for an army that half-guarded, half fled headlong along with, the mass of refugees fleeing Santa Anna and his troops during the Runaway Scrape. He started as a fifer, but soon took up a rifle & kit dropped by a comrade who was killed in a skirmish outside some nameless hamlet on the prairie. He served well enough to earn a commission for gallantry in the face of the enemy, rescuing a young female relative of Interim President Williams from a Mexican cavalry troop ("Brave, my left thumb, I wanted to ask her to the cotillion!"). wounded sixteen times, five from friendly fire when training especially inept volunteers, with whom he seemed to have a talent (so they sent them to him for training. and they kept accidentally - one hopes - shooting him...).

After the revolution, In an attempt to quell or at least lessen the troubles that plagued the tiny country's marine and rivurine borders, The republic of Texas (ROT) contracted the privateer mercenary company the Bayou Marauders (Dreyfuss now a dirigible captain with them), to guard these borders. They prowled the middle-to-eastern coast and bayous, in a motley assortment of craft, including a few primitive underslung-boat-type dirigibles, engaging and sinking or shooting down any who presented a suspicious mien to their (admittedly) over-zealous eye.

Dreyfuss left this organization after his first command (the tiny belted-monitor dirigible Mad Anthony Wayne), was shot down over Galveston Bay, off Indianola. Dreyfuss and crew had engaged a Louisiana privateer zeppelin, which cut the cables holding the Mad Anthony 's hull under the gasbag with chain and bar shot, plunging her with all hands into the bay. She never rose again, and Dreyfuss only escaped by accident, having been thrown from the outside after deck (He was trying to secure a loosened cable, the crewman aho had been doing it having been shot down by a rifleman on the Louisianan ship) when the first cables snapped. His torso was ripped by a loose cable that he tried to grab on the way down but lost hold of; the scar is there to this day, from right shoulder blade to left hip.

When he hit the water, Dreyfuss' left leg broke, whicxh is the reason for carrying "that stupid, accursed cane." He has learned to use it both defensively and offensively, however. Grudgingly...

It's now a few years on from being shot down. Dreyfuss has managed to acquire a modest side-wheeler steamboat, fit it with a gasbag and much-stronger and less-vulnerable (and much shorter) support lines and cables, along with a rather unconventional (and very powerful) ducted fan propulsion system built from the existing paddle wheel array. The Saint Elmois fast, maneuverable, and reasonably armed – but she's also in hock in dry-dock props, in a Galveston creditor’s warehouse.

Dreyfuss has since been going around adventuring and odd jobbing (he’s even played banjo in a, ahem, house of negotiable courtship), sending to the creditor in Galveston what little he can from what he makes to ("someday") pay off the debt. He hopes to soon join an airship crew, to keep his air legs and fight a few of the nasties he’s been hearing about lately.