Dutch Engstrom
Game System/Mechanic: Angel Game/Unisystem

Dutch Engstrom

Type: Veteran

Str 8
Dex 8
Con 6
Int 3
Per 4
Will 5
Muscle 22
Combat 20
Brains ~11

Life Points: 75
Drama Points: 20

Skills:
Acrobatics 5
Crime 5
Doctor 3
Driving 2
Getting Medieval 6
Gun Fu 7
Influence 3
Kung Fu 6
Languages 2
Mr. Fix-it 3
Notice 5
Occultism 3

Qualities:
Criminal, Contacts (Criminal), Regeneration Per Hour, Hard To Kill 3, Revenent, Situational Awareness, Unique Kill (Fire)

Drawbacks:
Adversary (Demons and Vampires), Emotional Problems (Fear Of Commitment), Obligation (to The Powers That Be), Psychic Visions, Mental Problems (Mild Cruelty), Dependant (daughter) 2

Background: Dutch Engstrom was a hit man who had enough. He decided to give the life up and had met the woman for him. Plans were made and Dutch was ready to go. Dutch had found out that his handlers would only let him go if he was dead, so Dutch decided to fake his death. He thought things were going well, until he woke up in the coffin. He was suppose to be in Singapore with his friends when the drugs wore off. The coffin was open and there was his handler. "Nice try Dutch, nice try. But we got your woman and now we got you." These were the last words he heard before the gunshot. Then darkness....
Dutch heard a voice telling him about good & evil. He wondered what was up, there was no way that shot had missed him. He couldn't even move his body as the gun went off, let alone dodge anything. Finally the voice told him he hadn't avoided death. However, since he had renounced his evil ways and was trying to do good, he was being given a second chance. How Dutch was to use his talents, abilities and training to defend the innocent and fight evil. The next thing Dutch knew was confusion and sense of falling. Then, he woke up inside a coffin... his coffin. Dutch was trying to get out of the coffin, material and the earth above him giving away. Not realizing in his confusions this was no adrenaline rush giving him such strength. Just as he got out the ground, someone was running at him. This person had a horribly disfigured face with fangs and someone yelled at Dutch to stop "fang boy". Looking around, the only weapon Dutch could find was his own tombstone. Grasping it, he swung it so hard that fang boy turned to dust. This bald guy game up and asked him what happened, and Dutch told him. The bald guy told him his name was Antone Castille and he needed Dutch's help. Having no other real choice, Dutch went with him and through the visions sent by "The Powers That Be" Dutch realized this was the group he was suppose to help. Joining Dutch & Antone were Spike the Vampire and Antone's assistant Freddy. One big change was it had been some 5 years since he had died. It was during their second adventure that Dutch found out what happened to his woman. It seemed the handler had lied and she had escaped them after Dutch's betrayal. However, once she found out Dutch was dead, things went from bad to worse for her. As she sank deeper and deeper, drugs, alcohol and prostitution were her world now. Eventually she was possessed by some evil elder goddess and became a cult leader. This brought the group into conflict with her, not realizing who was actually the leader of the cult. Warned that whoever had been possessed by the goddess' arm bracers was without hope and would have to be destroyed, Dutch stepped into the darkest moment of his unlife. Just as Dutch was about to lay the final decapitating blow, his lover was able to throw off the goddess for just a moment. Dutch realized who she was and was heartbroken at what he had to do. Here's actual scene/dialog:
Dark Goddess Avatar: "Don't I know you?"
Dutch: "Yeah, you did. But I was sent away and wasn't there to take care of you when you needed me. I'm sorry Baby. I'm going to make it up to you. I've been told this is the way to free you. I love you Baby."
"CHINK"
Head rolls off
Scene ends
Scene begins @ Strip club:
Open: Dutch downing bottle after bottle after bottle. Seemingly oblivious to anything or anyone. Unable to get drunk, unable to feel anything....

Dutch was able to get over it, starting with taking out his frustrations and anger on the bad guys. Dutch later found out about his daughter and sent them money when the group would defeat someone who had it. Eventually the team would grow and later others like Dutch's old friend Draven Payne who had become a cyborg would join up. Based in San Francisco, the group saved the world more than once.

Inspiration:
Dutch was actually kind of hard to come up with. As you might have guessed, it's one part "The Crow" one part Chow Yun Fat. I combined the "reformed assassin" archetype with the "undead champion" archetype from the Angel book. I figured I wouldn't get them both, but with the addition of the character Spike from Angel and Buffy brought the "power level" of the characters up. I gave the GM Randall, a "wish list" of powers and he very graciously gave them all to me. Visually, I can't remember if it was me or the GM who came up with using Thomas Jane as the face for Dutch. I think it was Randall, and man is it great. He just has those dead eyes, perfect for the Punisher and perfect for a revenant. The name was an intentional continuation of reusing characters from the movie "The Wild Bunch" in the Whedon-verse. Dutch being the only main character who's name hadn't been used. Wild Bunch is my favorite western, probably of all time, but I couldn't see using Ernest Borgnine's face. :) We ended up having a slight rewrite of the pilot episode and the origin given here was the first one for Dutch's reanimation. Since the first thing he did was use his own tombstone to dust a vamp, I fell in love with Dutch. So I used that origin here. Dutch stayed pretty much the same the second time around, mostly playing up the "two fisted gun man" part of his character. Too bad it took Eden Studios until late 05 to come up with a game mechanic for two fisted/ambidexterity. Oh well, Dutch was fine. I really enjoyed playing him and would gladly play him again anytime.
Thanks Randall, Dutch was great fun.

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