Josef "Kam" Ktismet, Martial Artist, Environmental/Medical Technician

Medicine Man
by Eric Funk

Subject 07GN243QX "Josef Ktismet", a.k.a. "Kam," née Melvin Walbert of Glisten/Spinward Marches.
Josef is a wandering medic, mechanic, and martial arts teacher. He has saved the lives of a number of nobles, and may be the key to answering one mystery that has plagued this office for some time.
Profile and data sheets follow.

Josef began his life in an ordinary middle-class family in a high-G colony in Glisten/Spinward Marches (SM2036, see p. T:BC 98, Traveller Planetary Survey 4). As soon as he was able, he signed on to a tramp freighter and took to the stars. Some wandering later, he had begun to pick up skills to help earn better passage, and was beginning to get confident when disaster struck.

While on a routine approach to a downport, his ship was mistakenly shot down by revolutionaries beginning a civil war. After the ship crashed, he was the first to regain consciousness. Smoke filled the corridor. Happening to be near the airlock, he opened it. To his horror, he glimpsed some armed gunmen leaving, and looked down to see dozens of unarmed civilians dead by bullet wounds, even women and children. Hearing gunfire and loud explosions, and feeling nauseous from the carnage, he stepped back, closing the airlock to protect the ship, and sought his crewmates. Working his way up the ship, he radioed for help. As he helped the crew up, they discovered that main power and all external sensors were disabled in the crash. Backup life support was repaired, and they could breathe. Starport Control advised them that, due to local hostilities, they should remain in the craft.


Subject is believed to be the only witness to the Alzonis Massacre. His report was glossed over as "delusional," and his personal file deleted. We don't know exactly how much he witnessed. Did he see their uniforms? What kind of weapons did they wield?

So far, all we have been able to piece together is this:
1) The gunmen executed their prisoners and moved on.
2) A lightly armed cleanup crew began disposing of bodies.
3) The ship crashed.
4) The cleanup crew retreated.
5) Kam discovered the carnage, and observed the back and profile of the trailing gunmen.
6) The cleanup crew returned and continued their work while the ship was immobilized.

The authorities took an agonizing (to Kam) amount of time to arrive, perhaps 30 minutes to an hour. By that time, the surrounding area was clean, washed, even. There was no sign of a skirmish. As such, he had no evidence, and was diagnosed with a form of post-traumatic stress syndrome linked to the crash and his loss of consciousness. Realizing afterward that he may have witnessed something covered up, he has lost weight, changed his name, and shaved his head. He has also taken up tattooing, an art he had long been interested in.

Today, Josef, "Kam" to his "cool" friends, is a Certified Medical Technician and a certified Assistant Engineer. When not working passage, he teaches others the skills he knows, or opens his mobile tattoo parlor. Everywhere he goes, he hopes to leave a mark to improve the universe, be it a tattoo, a suture, or a weld. To help diversify, he has also trained in jewelry to help "tattoo" reptilian and chitinous races. For humanoids, anything larger than a few square inches will require multiple sessions of 1 hour daily -- he doesn't have the ultra-tech equipment of a tattoo parlor.

Kam secretly wishes that he could do something great, such that the history books would remember him as a great, good person. Pessimists suggest that it might be the validation he needs to stop hiding. In either case, he will be likely to team up with any group that seeks to make a good impact in the universe. He has but one quandary: he wishes to gain a name in interstellar space, yet he gets sick in any gravity below 0.5G. As such, he is useless (or worse) in unpowered EVAs.
If we can find him, we may learn what happened to our agent, and who is responsible. Operatives are already in place, watching his family for the next time he makes contact.
Equipment

His carry-on luggage contains the following: a grav belt to increase gravity, often set higher than his native 1.15G to practice skills and martial arts. A compass/GPS, a small palmtop computer, survival rations, a towel, a swimsuit, a small medkit (+1 to skill), and his electronics and mechanic mini-toolkits. His check-in luggage contains the following: a tattoo kit and jeweler kit, a small selection of artificial stones that might make for effective trade goods on low-tech worlds. Clients must provide their own precious stones, or pay cash for him to procure them. He also travels with a first aid teaching kit, a first aid "Crash" Medkit (+2 to skill), and his armoury and electrician mini-toolkits.

Trademark

As a trademark, he takes holos of the work he has done. While this is not unusual for a tattoo artist, he does the same for welding jobs and trauma treatments. His "flashbooks" could even be a nifty plot device, containing an important clue, or providing the reason for someone to try to hunt him down. The fact that he leaves them in the public domain areas of planetary data nets makes him easier to track. Perhaps he has begun to forget what he is running from.

Why The Adventurers?

Less scrupulous adventurers might take advantage of his altruistic nature to get some short-term muscle and first aid. They must be careful to part on good terms, or he may report them to the authorities.

I.D. by Tattoo

Kam has a modest reputation for being able to recognize military and mercenary groups by their unofficial tattoos. If a (former?) soldier needs to be identified, Kam might be able to tell what company he was a member of.

Back to School

Kam can train the adventurers and their staff in first aid, engineering duties, martial arts, and art.

I Owe, I Owe, so it's Off to Work I Go

If the adventurers have a debt to pay, and no ship available, they might be able to find work helping Kam to repair and operate a dojo. Alternately, he could set up a stateroom, or part of the hold as a dojo, and teach people while on the go.

Adventure Seeds

High-G Training

Anyone can turn up the gravity, but instruction from someone with Kam's experience of working in different gravity fields can really make a difference in how an adventurer copes with it. His ability to professionally convey these experiences compounds his utility.

Written in the Stars

Perhaps they need to locate or implant a microchip in a tattoo? Something almost impossible to detect might be planted or laser cut within a jewel, or etched or embedded in a creature's chitin or scales.

The Jig is Up

Kam is convinced that the heroes are up to no good. He will show up at the most inopportune times to see what the player characters are up to. If the adventurers actions or words can change his mind about them, after a few encounters in which he helps them "do right," he will then seek to hang around with them in the hopes of positive publicity.

The Big Game

The crew is hired to bring Kam and a corporate champion to a competition of Aslan honor. The human champion is being coached by, and sparring with Kam. The organization wishes to get into the good books of the local Aslan clans. Midway, there can be "assassinations of embarrassment" by clans not wishing the alliance (see p. T:ARII 15), as well as protests, and the champion might even catch a cold! Since Kam has already been sworn in as a coach, he cannot take the fighter's place. Can the adventurers do so?

Trapped

Kam contacts the group secretly. He joined a group of "liberals," who later turned out to be terrorists! He wishes to expose them, but has found out that they have a mole in the local government's anti-terrorism unit. He begs the adventurers to help and he will say it doesn't matter who gets the credit. He has a document for them. All they need to do is find the right person before Kam is asked to do something criminal.

Lion Tamer

If the crew needs a guide to Aslan etiquette, this may be the man to count on. He has experience dealing with the local clans, and can stand by as a translator.

Shades of Grey

Shadow

Instead of having an altruistic mind, Kam is a glory hound. He has partly given up his desire to hide, and instead has moved to take up as much of the spotlight as he can. He believes people love heroes, so that's what he is becoming. Taking freighters toward where the interstellar action is, he leaves trademarks as he goes. Sooner, rather than later, he will step on someone's toes, and it will be easy to track him down (cf. his "flashbooks").

Variant

With another 50cp, he can be a starting Traveller adventurer.

Martial Artist

As presented, he is essentially a dabbler in martial arts. With another 50 to 100cp, he can master styles and perform normally difficult Hit location attacks with ease.

As an aside, what do we know about this massacre? Over four dozen civilians were lost from that subsector of the city, and there were no local military units nearby. The four mercenary units present "confided" to us that they had no operations in that area either. That leaves the "private security forces" of the four megacorporations that had offices in the capitol city at the time, plus our detachment, that was subsequently lost in jumpspace [please correct me if I'm wrong, R]?


Author's Note: (In GURPS 3e 100cp is "normal" and 150cp is normal "traveller," thus in GURPS 4e, 150cp is "normal", and ~200 will be a normal "traveller".)

Josef "Kam" Ktismet (née Melvin Walbert of Glisten/Spinward Marches) [150]

Human Male, Apparent age ~34, 180 lbs, bald, skin 90% covered in tattoos.
Certifications: Assistant Engineer's License, Certified Medical Technician (see p. T:FT 83)
Primary Attributes: ST 13 [30]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 12 [40]; HT 11 [10].
Secondary Characteristics: Dmg 1d/2d-1; BL 34 lbs; HP 13; Will 12; Per 12; FP 11; Basic Speed 6 [5]; Basic Move 6; Dodge 11*; Parry 12* (Karate); Block 11* (cloak); Native Gravity 1.15G; TL 12.
* Includes +1DB from cloak.
Karate Damage: 1d+2
Cultural Familiarities: Imperial Mainstream (Native) [0]; Sector Aslan [2].
Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15]; Common Sense (Reliable +4, +20%) [12]; Eidetic Memory (Reliable +4, +20%) [6]; G-Experience (All) [10]; High Manual Dexterity +2 [10].
Disadvantages: Disciplines of Faith (A semi-mystical Aslan Zen hybrid) [-5]; Obsession (Do something great and good for the history books) [-10]; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10]; Phobia (Weightlessness) [-5]; Quirks (Distinctive Feature: Body 90% covered by tattoos; Free Sick [-1]; Keeps his Head Shaved; Wears a backpack; Wears light, unencumbering clothes) [-5]; Sense of Duty (friends) [-5]; Secret (Witnessed the after effects of a covered-up massacre) [-20]; Trademark (Takes holos and leaves them in public places on each planet)[-5]; Xenophilia (12) [-10].
Skills: Artist (Body Art) (Tattooing)-15/13 (IQ+2‡ H) [4]; Cloak-12 (DX A) [2]; Connoisseur (Visual Arts) (Tattoos)-12/10 (IQ A) [1]; Diagnosis-12 (IQ A) [2]; Electronics Operation (Medical)-12 (IQ E) [1]; First Aid-12 (IQ E) [1]; Jeweler-13 (IQ+1‡ H) [2]; Karate-14 (DX+2 H) [12]; Karate (Art)-12 (DX H) [2†]; Karate (Sport)-12 (DX H) [2†]; Mechanic (Jump Drive)-12 (IQ A) [2]; Mechanic (Maneuver Drive)-12 (IQ A) [2]; Mechanic (Power Plant)-12 (IQ A) [2]; Physiology (Humaniti)-10 (IQ-2 H) [1]; Pilot (Contragravity)-11 (DX-1 A) [1]; Savoir-Faire-12 (IQ E) [1]; Savoir-Faire (Aslan)-12 (IQ E) [1]; Shipbuilding (Starship)-12 (IQ A) [2]; Streetwise-11 (IQ-1 A) [1]; Swimming-11 (HT E) [1]; Teaching-12 (IQ A) [2]; Writing-11 (IQ A) [1].
Technique: Disarm (PS+1 H) [1].
Languages: Galangic (Native) [0]; Gurvin (Federation Trade Tongue, see p. T:ARIII 29) (Broken) [2]; Gvegh (Vargr Trade Tongue, see p. T:ARI 86) (Broken/none) [1]; Trokh fiyalr (Aslan trade tongue) (Native) [6]; Trokh (Aslan high tongue) (Accented) [4].
† From Karate Default.
‡ Includes +2 from Manual Dexterity.

Quotes
:

"That's a nice scar. One could put a nice eclipse around it."
"That power coupling, um, looks like it could use more tape. Incidentally, which way to the nearest escape hatch?"
"Are you going to apologize for that so I can apply first aid, or do you want to wait for an ambulance?"


Other Disadvantages that can work:
Nightmares (12) [-5];
Curious (12) [-5];

Special Thanks to Jonathan Carryer, Bevan Thomas and Dustin Tranberg for their help in corralling this vagabond into the photo booth.