Rodrigo di Fuentes

Name:

Rodrigo di Fuentes

Occupation:

Explorer

Place of Birth:

Somewhere in the Amazon basin.

Current Residence:

Lisboa, Portugal (when not out on an expedition).

Appearance:

Rugged and world-worn, Rodrigo is more concerned with the practicalities of survival in the bush than with his appearance.

Childhood:

Born to explorers killed while he was still a young baby. Subsequently raised by monks working at a mission among the Amazon tribespeople.

Education:

Studied at the University of Lisboa.

Virtue:

Unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

Vice:

Too many rough edges to be considered a gentleman.

Style:

Practical (and well-worn).

Personality:

Prone to exaggeration.

Likes:

Being the centre of attention.

Dislikes:

Most valued principle:

Discovery for discovery's sake.

Most treasured possession:

An ornate pocket chronometer that once belonged to his father.

Most valued person:

Nemesis:

Alliances:

New Europan Explorers Society.

Romantic Life:

Sees little need for a romantic life. Takes his pleasures where they are available but romance only causes distractions.

Social Goal:

To establish an 'Explorers Club' at the source of the Amazon, where fellow explorers can drop in for a drink and to exchange incredible true stories.

Professional Goal:

To chart the length of the great Amazonian River to its source.

Romantic Goal:

Abilities:

Great - Education Good - Courage , Marksmanship , Perception , Physician , Stealth Poor - Exchequer , Social Graces

Action most regretted:

Proudest moment:

Being initiated into the Djuranga tribe of southern Congo.

Hits :

6

Damage Taken:

The Memoirs of Rodrigo di Fuentes

I am sure that I need no introduction - my fame is renowned throughout New Europa - but colleagues assure me that it is only proper and acceptable to start a journal in that fashion. Thus, I am Rodrigo di Fuentes, born of Portuguese parents and now a citizen of the world, an explorer by occupation.

'Like father, like son' as the saying goes. Indeed both of my parents were explorers, and I was born (so I am told) on the dirt floor of a native hut in the village of the Ramawara tribe. Alas, I do not have any memories of my parents for they died shortly after I was born, sacrificed to the unspeakable snake god of the river by a raiding party of cannibals who fell upon the Ramawara. I myself was saved by one of the women of the tribe who fled downriver till eventually she reached the mission of St. Josephus where she later died of her wounds, but not before she had passed me into the care of the monks. Such have I been told, for I was too young to have any recollection of these events. Now, all that I have to remind me of the parents is my father's old chronometer, which one of the monks retrieved from the village once the cannibals had moved on.

My formal education in those early years was largely religious in nature, although I did develop an aptitude for languages (particularly the native dialects) and an interest in the herbalism and medicine of the local tribes. Fortunately the good brethren of St. Josephus recognised that my future did not follow their path, and (when I was of an age) sent me to study in the more secular confines of the University at Lisboa in my native Portugal.

Upon my graduation, I discovered that the di Fuentes family name still had great value, even in a country famed for its explorers. It seemed natural that I should follow in my parents footsteps, and indeed I received numerous invitations to join expeditions being planned to regions as far afield as the polar icepack, the dark hinterland of Africka and the remote islands of the Pacific.

Arctic regions are, to my mind, better tolerated by those with colder blood, such as those from Scandinavia or Russia. Nor has sailing the vast expanses of ocean in the hope of running into a hitherto uncharted island ever appealed to me. I crave excitement, and found it aplenty in the jungles of Southern and Western Africka. I could speak for hours of the great civilisations that flourish in the hinterland of the Dark Continent, or the incredible rift in the world that leads to a land populated by giant lizards that would give Dr. Richard Owen at the British Museum nightmares.

Marvellous indeed are the creatures that I have seen and the tribal rituals in which I have been privileged to partake over the course of my travels. I have walked the fires of a volcano, protected from instant incineration by boots woven from the hide of the great white elephant. I have saved the life of an Isazi princess from a horde of marauding Zingawa warriors, armed with only one bullet in my trusty revolver, and with my wits. Needless to say, her grateful father offered her hand in marriage as a reward for my actions; and if truth be told she was an attractive woman with whom I dallied for several weeks. In the end I declined his offer, for how can a civilised man marry a savage, and I was subsequently forced to flee in peril of his wrath at my supposed insult to his daughter. On another memorable occasion, I was inducted into the Djuranga tribe of southern Congo, who make their homes beneath the waters of the river in reed homes sealed watertight with naturally occurring pitch. This was my reward for saving the tribe from the threat posed by a dragon living amid the hot springs near where the pitch was mined.

Now that I have made my reputation I feel that it is time for me to return once more to South America, much of which is still uncharted, and map the great Amazonian river to its source. The decision made, it remains only for me to seek out funding for this expedition. Then I will be in a position to recruit and equip a team of intrepid scholars willing to endure hardship and risk death for no greater reward than seeing lands that no man has seen before.

I have never met our host, Sir Sebastian, before: rather I know him through his sister Constance Thomas, who I met while on an expedition in the Congo some years ago. She too is an explorer, travelling with the great Sir Basil Rathingspoke, and recording the exotic flora and fauna of the riverbanks. It was she that asked me to pass on family letters to her brother Sebastian returning, as I was, to New Europa before her. I had hoped that he might be willing to sponsor my expedition to the Amazon, but it seems that his exchequer is barely greater than my own; yet his tales of an archaeological dig in Egypt did intrigue me. I realise that while there is much of the Earth's surface where no New Europan has yet set foot, there are regions of the world which we have known for centuries that have still not revealed all their secrets.