Characters Sheets: Road to Monsterberg Ch1, Road to Monsterberg Ch2
Johannes Grant Age: 40 Origin: Edinburgh, Scotland Estate: Gentry
Appearance: Of medium build, his short reddish hair is turning gray around the temples, as is his short, neatly trimmed beard. He is fit and agile, with piercing blue eyes.
Arms and armor: Johann Grant is heavily armed – his main weapon is a large bronze-barreled hook-gun (firearm). He also carries a Hungarian style szabla saber, with a mace and a dirk in his belt, and a small pavise shield won on his back. He wears a brigandine vest with some textile armor and a bascinet helmet.
Personality: Intense and fairly quiet, he tends toward bluntness and makes biting sarcastic comments when he hears something stupid. Johannes or John as he is known to his friends, was one of the leaders of the group during their trek from Belgrade to Krakow.
History: Johannes Grant served with the Genoese in the defense of Constantinople, successfully intercepting several Ottoman tunneling efforts. He performed the same role with equal success in Belgrade. Since the siege and its aftermath though, he says he’s had enough of looking at impaled corpses and hopes never to hear the Mehter again. He plans to return to his native Edinburgh and contribute to building up his home town into a great city, bringing ideas he learned during his time with the Italians and Byzantines.
Language: Speaks English, Scots, and Latin, plus a smattering of Genoese Italian.
Private Bio: Johannes really enjoys military engineering, and takes pride in his successes against the Ottomans, but he had a close call in Byzantium, saw horrible things, and then the same happened at Belgrade. He wants to get well clear of the Ottomans and carries a book (not listed on the character sheet) with some sketches and many notes he compiled over the years he was among the Byzantines and Italians, some from Classical sources some much more modern – many are either secret or known to very few, especially back in Scotland. With these notes Johannes thinks he can go back to Edinburgh and set himself up as a master builder. He sees this notebook as key to his future prosperity so it’s his most valued possession.
Communication: Johann doesn’t speak German.So among the group he can only communicate in Latin and some Italian, so he can speak directly only to Simon, Gerard (who he finds slightly annoying), Kalina, Gerd, and Charlotta. He can also talk to Kunes but finds his bad Latin unbearable. To talk with the others, he needs someone to translate.
Fighting Strategy: Johannes is first and foremost a gunner. His hook gun hits hard and if he can steady the weapon on some kind of support, he gains a Free Dice on his to-hit rolls. When shooting he will use his mini-pavise as a static defense, it can be set up on the ground. When fighting in melee, his skill is mainly on the defense. If he has no shield he gets +9 Defense with his saber. He will use his mace against armored opponents. If he can, he will take up his shield in defense which gives him a Free Dice and a bonus to +13 due to his Shield Fighting MF. As an older guy Johann dislikes grappling and if someone closes to grapple he will use his Point Control MF to gain a Free Dice as an AoO. If he doesn’t have the saber in hand he can use his Quick Draw MF to pull his Dirk.
Special: Go to Ground, Hausmacht, Scrounging