Description

Personality

Angry and somber. He acts like he doesn't care, but if there's danger threatening the group, he's the first one to raise his rifle. Given noble morals from his father and mother, but counteracted by war trauma and heavy drinking. His psychological condition is quite frail, and he doesn't allow anyone to touch it. He has little patience for people from high society that want to be part-time adventurers; his anger usually comes out with a combination of listening to such people talk when he has half a bottle of his Liquid Courage in his system. He is overall a good person, but haunted by his history.

Equipment

BSA Lee-Speed Sporter rifle in .303 with 6 10-round magazines; bought through a newspaper ad

BSA-brand sword bayonet; came with rifle

A belt containing two holsters that hold:
A LeMat revolver with an American cartridge conversion in .44 caliber; stolen
A Webley Army Model revolver in .455 caliber; taken during bar fight

British army-issue cartridge box filled to the brim with loose .303 rounds; taken from military academy cadet

Oversized wool blanket

Rucksack containing an extra pair of clothes, a vulcanized ground cloth, a plate, tin cup, spare foodstuffs, coffee grinds, and a limited amount of whiskey

United States army-issue haversack containing ammunition for his pistols

Round gallon-sized canteen

American Bowie knife; taken from Zulu tribal chieftan

Floppy American cowboy hat that is beginning to come undone

History

Born to struggling farmers on August 15th, 1860 outside of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Grew up starving half the time, and trouble-making the other half. After killing 2 schoolboys, he was forced into the British Expeditionary Military and served between 1876 and 1890, having participated in most of the African campaigns of the period. Survived the Anglo-Zulu War, the First Boer War, the Pioneer Column Invasion, and part of the First Matabele War before being severely wounded in the thigh during the decisive march to the capitol of Matabeleland. As his column was moving up on enemy riflemen, they were ambushed on all sides and his leg was cracked by a Matabele warrior with a ceremonious club, though Declan followed it up by shooting the man in the head and assisting in driving the rest off. He was discharged from the military to his protest, and he regrets every moment he isn't under the African sun fighting the rest of the savages that are, in spirit, not unlike himself.

After coming back home, he worked a collection of oddjobs, mostly labor-based, despite his weakened leg. If confronted on his inability to walk on it, he would simply grunt and lie. Without any ability to support himself, he resorts to stealing, and finds himself good at it. The African guerrillas taught him to cause diversions if you want to reach what's caught your eye, and he steals everything he finds that he needs. Any money he earns goes to drinking cheap scotch; he learned how to forage food from nearby farms and other sources in the civilized areas of Africa. However, during one of his numerous drunken encounters with a rich adventurer, who was equally drunk, the man told him of a coming expedition to the southern American continent. After looking into it, Declan found himself saving the money he earned/stole to buy the things he would need to go out with the team. Close to the end of his life (with an abnormally low life expectancy in his 'modern' world) he decides to go out on one last trip, maybe to see a new world, maybe just to give himself the opportunity of an honorable death that he had escaped long ago.