Conrad Kessler

{{Character|

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| image=|

| name=Conrad Kessler

| aliases=Kort Kessler, Kort the Wonderous

| gender=Male

| race=Gnome

| dob=September 10, 1840

| pob=Chicago, Illinois

| occupation=Operator of the Kort of Wonders Mail Order Catalog

| affiliations=Gnomes of Zurich (Distant)

| spouse=None

| children=None

| class={{class table|Smart Hero|3|Techie|1}}

| alignment=Humanity, Civilization, Technology

}}

Conrad Kessler, known as Kort to his friends and clients, is a scientist and inventor who operates a mail-order service out of Chicago that serves all western territories. He offers time and energy saving inventions for the house and field, but the primary source of revenue is as a gunsmith and refitter. He offers custom ammo, sights and weapons for cowboys, lawmen, and the great hunters. Most of this work is done through mail-order and the telegraph, so very few could identify the inventor in person. Most would probably be surprised to learn that the master gunsmith is only 4 feet tall and weighs a slight hundred pounds.

The simple truth is that Conrad is a member of the swiss gnomes, a group of fey and earth spirits who came to Europe several centuries ago and settles in Switzerland. They have spent so much time among humanity that most have lost their magical nature. To replace this, they have learned much of human artifice and invention and developed a natural knack for it. The live as just another ethnic group among the diverse Swiss populace.

Hartwin and Leona Kessler, Kort's father and mother left Switzerland in 1798 ahead of Napoleon's armies and emigrated to the United States, where they hoped they could live in peace and raise a family in a country without war. They lived in New York City for most of the next twenty years, with Kort's father working as a tinker and smith in what is now the borough of Queens. They also had one child, Claudette Kessler, Conrad's older sister. By 1825 the Kessler family headed west into Michigan and then Illinois, Hartwin having developed some of the American's adventurer spirit. They eventually settled in Chicago in 1835, where Hartwin worked as an engineer and machinist.

Over the next 35 years, Cort watched as his father built a successful architectural firm, helping to build the city as it grew. He also started to share more openly from some of the inventions of the Old Country as the Industrial Revolution grabbed the US and started to change things. But just as he was starting to make a name for himself and had the potential for some real profits as a result of patents for his inventions, the Great Chicago fire struck and wiped out Hartwin and his workshop.

Leona had managed to protect her children from the fire, but there was nothing left for her in America. She took both of her children back to Zurich to live with her parents. There Kort and his sister were given a "proper" gnomish education. Like all young Swiss, Conrad served for 4 years active duty in the Swiss Military, then decided that he wanted to go back home to America. He left his mother and his newly married sister and returned to Chicago in 1885, taking with him a few inventions that he had come up with during his time in Zurich to patent and give him a starting nest egg.

He took the seed money that he got from licensing his patents, including a double action revolver mechanism that he licensed to a major gun manufacturer and bought his own building in old Chicago, a two-story brownstone with an extensive basement. It is from this building that Kort operates his business, doing most of his work via the postal service. He is keeping a low profile because of his mother's worries, probably unfounded, that the Chicago fire was started to kill Hartwin.