NAME: Dr. Howard Phillips; Doc Ward for short; DO NOT call him 'Howie'
AGE: 33
GENDER: Male
RACE: Human, mostly Caucasian.
APPEARANCE: Short dark brown hair parted towards the left. Very long oval-shaped face, large almond-shaped brown eyes. Patchy eyebrows set just above the eyes, making for an abnormally large forehead. Extremely thin lips (bottom lip almost looks like it isn't there most of the time). Despite the hard living that everyone endures these days, there isn't a single scar on him. Keeps himself well-groomed and clean-shaven. He always wears a solid black suit he found in a building in Dunwich, complete with a necktie and coat. Uses stitched-together remains of a conveyer as a belt. Wears a black paper trilby. Has a pair of broad square reading glasses that he wears to get a closer look at something. He's around 6'2", but despite his height, he's a bit of a pushover; he's very skinny and lanky, probably couldn't take a decently muscled guy half his height, let alone a super mutant, in a fist-fight anyway. Good thing he doesn't really depend on going toe-to-toe with anyone.
PERSONALITY: He's very bookish, and usually fairly quiet. Well, calling him 'a bit bookish' is a gross understatement; he's a complete bibliophile (it would be sexual if it were at all physically possible) with a keen analytical mind, so despite only having tattered remains of medical textbooks and energy weapons manuals to work with, he's managed to deduce most of the gaps in his education rather well, and when he can, he conducts some experiments to work out the rest. But, of course, he's always on the look for a new book, whether or not it actually furthers his studies. In combat, he tends to sneak around, but despite that, he never shuts up. He's always making a running commentary of everything that's going on. He's thought about trying to stop doing that, but it hasn't gotten him killed yet... and it has had his opponents make stupid blunders in the past, so its useful enough. Well, that's not entirely true... there are some occasions during combat where he will quiet down... usually when he hasn't been detected yet... but assuming he has been... he might quiet down when trying to take someone completely by surprise without any warning whatsoever... or... when he thinks the shit is REALLY about the hit the fan. In his spare time, he writes short fiction stories, usually horror. Some of his work has already been circulated in some of the more heavily restored areas, and well... the content of his work has led many to believe he is completely schizophrenic. Howard himself is unsure of this. He just gets these headaches sometimes, and then he falls into deep sleep, and then he has utterly bizarre nightmares; and while these go, he narrates them at the top of his voice without meaning to while still asleep. Many of these nightmares have directly inspired some of his most disturbing work. If you're traveling with him, he asks that you write down everything he says during these 'nightmares', if they don't scare you into running to the next state.
WEAPONS: He has a custom array of laser weaponry that he's tacked together from spare parts he keeps around in his knapsack. But, he only has enough parts to make one weapon at a time, and makes a habit of disassembling today's weapon, and prepare tomorrow's according what he thinks he'll need tomorrow. These weapons aren't always reliable, and how good they are really depends on how much time he has to assemble them, and what kind, and quality of parts he finds. Most of the time, he's packing a middle of the road laser pistol that has a medium range, and slightly below average damage. Sometimes he'll have a rapid-fire, but typically fairly inaccurate laser assault rifle that does slightly above average damage. And on very rare occasions, he'll be packing an extremely lethal, extremely long-range sniper rifle that fires one shot every 2 minutes, but whatever it hits is instantly vaporized. He's an okay shot with the sniper rifle, a horrible shot with the assault rifle, and an exceptional shot with the pistol. If he finds shoddy, sub-standard, or even outright unstable parts, he flat-out refuses to sell them, instead, he turns them into grenades of varying types, it really depends on what he finds. He doesn't currently have any on him though.
ITEMS: He has a satchel/knapsack that he takes with him everywhere, almost always slung over his left shoulder. He carries everything in it from whatever bits of junk and spare weapon parts to a small collection of pencils and paper, as well as his reading glasses, and whatever manuscript he happens to be working on at the time. Aside from that, he has a small locket with an ink drawing of a pretty woman in it that he keeps hidden in a secret compartment of the satchel.
PERKS/TRAITS/SKILLS: He is a decent practitioner of medicine, he rarely makes mistakes, and has a good grasp of where his limits are, and does not step beyond them. When he encounters an injury or illness that is beyond his ability to heal, he will offer his patient the mercy of death. He does not relish this option, and proceeds to carry it out with a great deal of care to minimize the patient's suffering as much as possible. He is also fairly good at repairing weapons and armor, but he is especially skilled with energy weapons, and anything to do with power generation or conveyance. He hates computers and robots though, they have an annoying tendency to blow up whenever he tries to use them. He is fairly good at keeping out of other people's sight both in and out of combat, and has a very quiet step. As previously mentioned, he also has a very odd quirk of narrating the majority of fights he finds himself in, much to the chagrin of his opponents (even driven a few into a blind fury). Howard is very aware of the effect his constant narration can have on someone, and he has trained himself, with the help of a few books he found on the subject, in the art of ventriloquism. He can't really speak without his lips moving yet, but he is very adept at throwing his voice wherever he wants to.
TRANSPORTATION: Usually none, but when he can find a good horse, he'll try to snatch it up