Gottfried Reiner

Overview

Dr. Gottfried Reiner is a 44-year-old chemist at the University of Vienna who serves the Brotherhood as a producer of neurotoxins and preservation fluids. However, Reiner does not understand the true nature of his work.

Herzfeld has told Reiner that he is developing revolutionary anaesthetics for surgical use. The “volunteers” are, in Reiner’s understanding, terminal patients seeking merciful death. Reiner is brilliant but naive; he has never visited the sealed anatomical theatre and has never seen how his chemicals are actually used.

Physical Description

A thin man with the perpetually tired appearance of someone who spends long hours in a laboratory. Thinning hair, ink-stained hands (from chemical work, not writing), thick spectacles magnifying nervous blue eyes. He dresses in a worn academic coat stained with various chemical substances. His personal hygiene is adequate but not a priority — his focus is entirely on his work.

Personality

Brilliant but compartmentalized. Reiner has never asked difficult questions about the true nature of his work because he has constructed a plausible narrative that allows him to avoid moral discomfort. He is a good man who is capable of terrible acts because he refuses to see their true nature.

Key Traits:

• Brilliant: Exceptional chemist capable of innovative work
• Naive: Accepts Herzfeld’s explanations without scrutiny
• Focused: Absorbed in the technical challenges of his work
• Rationalization: Has constructed a moral framework that permits him to produce these chemicals

Session Appearances

Reiner should not appear directly in early sessions. References to his work (the unique properties of the neurotoxins, the unusual chemical orders to the University) can be uncovered through investigation. By Session 9–10, if the party is searching for ways to counteract the paralytic toxins, Reiner may become relevant as a source of technical information.