Finn Hamm

"I am the master of my fate; not God, not Tia Dalma, and certainly not you!"

-Finn before engaging Teller Lohand

Captain Finn Hamm, also known as Adrian, was a Pirate Lord of the Brethren Court and Knight of Hyperion who operated during the waning years of the Age of Piracy. Born in Essex, he became involved with the East India Company as a young adult and eventually attained the rank of Assassin. He would go on to commandeer a frigate in service to the company and turn to a life of piracy.

During his career as a pirate, he built a reputation as a master of trickery and deceit. As a Pirate Lord, he ruled the Adriatic Sea under the pseudonym of Adrian and, through shady circumstances, came to rule a fanatical cult of worshipers. After leaving the Court and disowning the name Adrian, the few surviving members of his cult were made officers of his newly renamed vessel, the Adipocere. Eventually, it was Hamm's own hubris and inability to face his past that led to his eventual end.

Hamm's twilight years are documented in the story Adipocere.

Physical Characteristics
"Though he was not physically imposing, there was a supernatural air about him, as if he could sense the disease of those around him and drank on it with glee."

-Teller's description of Hamm while aboard the Adipocere

Finn was described as gaunt and deathly pale as if he suffered from an affliction and was slightly above average height. He had dirty blonde hair that darkened as his career progressed and gray-blue eyes that had curious glinting properties. Those around him for long periods of time noted he seemed to emanate a strange chthonic power.

He wore a tattered East India Company coat (a remnant of his time as an assassin for the Company), a black and red noble's vest, black trousers, and black boots. He occasionally sported a black gaucho if he felt particularly daring.

An artifact of his time as the dreaded Adrian, he, along with all his superior officers, also possessed a white beaked mask which he wore in combat to terrify his foes and conceal his identity if need be. Their designs were based off of masks worn by doctors during the "Great Plague of London," in the 17th century.

Possessions
A clever combatant, Hamm possessed a wide range of weapons and was known to carry many on his person at all times. Rarely seen wielding heavy weapons such as blunderbusses and broadswords, he favored small blades and pistols that could be easily concealed within the folds of his coat. He primarily used the Silver Freeze throwing knives and Master Crafted Repeater Pistol in combat, also showing an inclination towards sabres and grenades. He regularly disregarded the Pirate Code by opening fire on living combatants, though he begrudgingly kept to the rules during his time as a Lord.

Well-versed in the art of voodoo, he was skilled in the use of staves and dolls but hardly ever used the latter combatively. To channel the dark arts, he primarily used the Villainy Doll (which formerly served as his Piece of Eight) and Burnt Staff.

As a powerful magician, Finn possessed a wide array of trinkets, talismans, and other artifacts that gave him an edge in combat. Notably, he possesed a cursed ring that caused bullets to shatter harmlessly on his bare skin, though each use of the ring apparently caused one of his limbs to fall into a spastic, gangrenous state for up to a day at a time. One report alledges him to have been slain by a Navy officer via decapitation and his corpse dissolving into ash then subsequently producing a nest of ravenous scorpions; he reanimated at an unknown location some time later.

Hamm often served as the unnofficial spiritual adviser for the Court thanks to his extensive knowledge of the forbidden arts. Though many dismissed him as a simple witch doctor and grifter who sought to exploit the fragile psyche of any desperate individuals seeking spiritual guidance, his prophecies, while expensive, proved to be legitimate more often than not.

In addition to the Adipocere, Hamm also captained the Red Ransom and the Cutthroat Comet, which, in times of need, were placed under the command of hired proxy captains to serve as wing ships. He also inherited the ancient twin flagships of the Knights of Hyperion, the Charon  and the Lord Elizabeth, though the vessels were kept in permanent drydock at his hidden base of operations. At some point during his time in the Brethren Court, he obtained the luxury light sloop the Champagne, which he left docked at Shipwreck Cove and never recovered.

Fictionally, Hamm also possessed the Ambassador sword and the Vindicator dagger.

Biography
Finn Hamm, formerly known as Adrian, hailed from the quaint Essex, England. An orphan forced to fend for his life on the streets as a member of a violent Irish gang, he was unwillingly taken under the wing of the EITC assassin Addison Mayfield following a close encounter with local pirates. Mayfield groomed Hamm to follow in his footsteps and join the ranks of the Company, and the boy was soon indoctrinated into their ways.

Soon, however, after attaining the rank of Assassin, Finn grew disillusioned with the Company following an incident at Havana, Cuba. As it happpened, the EITC owned a plantation there that was operated entirely by slaves. Mayfield, disapproving of the practice of slavery, took matters into his own hands and burnt down the plantation with his apprentice's help. The Company worked tirelessly to find the arsonist and eventually apprehended and killed Mayfield, never suspecting that the boy had been involved. Outraged, Finn was determined to leave his life as an agent of Cutler Beckett behind. He began to conspire with two other Company agents, Neban and Remington, to steal a Tyrant warship and turn to a life of piracy. However, his two friends double-crossed him and brought his schemes to light before a high-ranking executive of the Company. Still, Hamm narrowly succeeded in his plan to steal the frigate and began his career as a swashbuckler, vowing to one day take revenge on those who had double crossed him.

At some point early in his career, Hamm was captured by the Royal Navy, narrowly avoiding the hangman's noose by negotiating a decade long service to the Crown. He quickly built a solid reputation as one of the finest smugglers in Her Majesty's service, though he had been planning his escape virtually since it become apparent he would be imprisoned. Through mysterious circumstances, Finn relieved himself of service to the Royal Navy and resumed his career as a pirate captain.

As the years dragged on, Hamm's reputation grew, and he soon joined the Brethren Court, eventually even becoming the Pirate Lord of the Adriatic Sea. Finn took on the name Adrian and cemented his reputation as one of the greatest pirates to sail the seas. He commandeered the sloop-of-war HMS Australia and renamed it to the Shadow Song, from then on using it as his new flagship. After a vacancy in the position, Hamm was elected Keeper of the Code for the Brethren Court.

Eventually, the Pirate Lord would encounter his two archenemies once again. While seeking temporary safe haven from bounty hunters on the lawless island of Tortuga, Neban and Remington, accompanied by a sizeable fleet of Company trackers, invaded the island to hunt down and destroy both Adrian and his crew on the orders of Cutler Beckett himself. After a fierce battle that ended in much of Tortuga being burnt to the ground, the two assassins were defeated by Adrian and his loyal men, but both of them narrowly escaped into the dense jungle.

The Brethren Court soon grew more ambitious on the international stage. Adrian and his crew were dispatched by the Pirate King to liberate the port of Nassau from the clutches of the East India Company. Originally planned to be a daring rescue of the practically enslaved population there, Adrian instead organized a full-scale invasion of the port town, slaughtering Company agents and innocent civillians alike. Among the dead was the notorious Company assassin Edward Lohand, who effectively ruled the island under Beckett's authority. It came as a genuine surprise to Hamm that Edward had a little brother who held a lower rank within the Company, who he could have easily murdered, but instead left him alive, albeit without a penny to his name. The boy, Thurston, never saw Adrian's face or learned of his name, and quickly assumed a fake name to blend in, just in case any natives of the town still had ill will towards the Lohand name.

Adrian's travels eventually brought him to the cursed island of Isla Perdida, where an ancient sect of cultists named the Knights of Hyperion harboring untold riches and power was said to operate from. Adrian found the seemingly friendly cult there, noting that their members bore odd white plague masks. A senior member of the cult explained that they had been responsible for the so-called Great Plague of London several decades ago, revenge for an ancient atrocity the English had committed against their people.

This cult member also informed Adrian that there was unrest within the Knights - disagreement about who their next leader should be. Adrian decided to take advantage of the situation by slaughtering both sides of the conflict without fear or favor. The remnants of the cult - all three of them - conceded to him and named him their supreme leader. Along with untold riches, however, the cultists also showed him a great many secrets pertaining to the dark arts. The knowledge he learned while on Perdida drove him insane (even more than he already was) and made him dangerously powerful. Fearing their captain's power, all but one of the Shadow Song's crew abandoned him.

Adrian named the last remaining crewmate, along with the three cultists he had gained on Perdida, his new officers and set about rebuilding his crew mostly from scratch. On his quest to regain a full sized crew, he traveled to the port of Nassau once more, where he was both relieved to see the natives of the island had long forgotten him and bewildered to find Edward Lohand's brother, Thurston there, or as he now called himself, Teller. It became apparent the boy was itching for adventure, and the captain allowed him to join his crew as a mercy.

Adrian only grew more hungry for power as his career progressed. As he captured more and more ports and committed seemingly daily atrocities, the Court sought to restrain him so as to not taint their name. Outraged by their restrictions, Adrian became even more rebellious, even opening fire on Brethren ships on several occassions. Deeply troubled by these incidents, the other Pirate Lords called for an emergency meeting at Shipwreck Cove, which he agreed to attend.

For several hours, other Lords, including the King, levied countless accusations against Adrian, some of them not even accurate. His position as Keeper of the Code - and as a member of the Court - was now seriously in question. Adrian defended himself by claiming he was simply acting as any self-respecting pirate would, which was simply not a good enough explanation for the then Pirate King Cannonwalker.

Using emergency powers, Cannonwalker stripped Adrian of his title and rank within the Court, which outraged him beyond measure. The rogue Lord used a spell to freeze the entire Court in place, forcing them to watch as he turned the entire fortress into a smoldering mess. He disowned the name Adrian and set sail once more on his newly renamed flagship, the Adipocere, as an independent pirate.

The secret of Raven's Cove was soon brought to his attention. According to Tia Dalma, the Spanish conquistador El Patron had hidden a massive cache of cursed weapons on the forgotten island and imbued three artifacts with the power to locate it, then scattered them across the Caribbean for a worthy successor to find. Warning Finn to beware of the "one who the dagger called to," the pirate set about locating the artifacts. Hamm discovered one of these artifacts upon an EITC Sentinel bound for the Spanish island of Isla de la Avaricia. Seeking the second artifact, he consulted the Spanish Lord Garcia de la Avaricia, who admitted he knew the location of the artifact, only revealing it after Hamm brought him a years' worth of medicinal supplies from Port Royal.

As it happened, the second artifact was located on Isla Perdida, which had since become known as the Isle of Sacrifice. Hamm discovered the artifact there after nearly being killed by the local wildlife, which had flourished following the departure of the Anu Mar cult. Stumped as to the location of the final artifact, Finn was approched by Jolly Roger, who claimed that the East India Company had found it some time ago and was following the trail to Raven's Cove. The two agreed to hunt down the artifact and then split the treasure.

Their search for the artifact brought them to Fort Dundee, where Hamm and his crew, backed by Jolly Roger's undead army, led a massive assault to pillage it. Finn encountered his old enemies Neban and Remington there, who had apparently been hunting him all these years and only just located him once more. Neban was slain by Hamm there, but Remington escaped once more. Unable to find the artifact, a sizeable expedition fleet bound for the Cove departed from a hidden dock on Fort Dundee, finding their way to the island thanks to a gypsy with a strange connection to El Patron's cache.

Hamm and Roger gave chase to the fleet and the two armies clashed on the island, desperate to find El Patron's legacy. Finn led his men into the mines, where they found Remington once more, backed by a score of Company assassins. Remington was finally slain by Finn there, who then secured the mines and began to load the weapons on to his ship, sharing the haul with Roger as agreed.

The captain discovered a cursed blade of his own there, the so-called Ambassador, which harbored an unknown supernatural power. Hamm also curiously noticed that Teller, Edward Lohand's forgotten brother, located a golden dagger in the mines that had "called," to him. Finn then struck a deal with Roger to use the weapons to take revenge on the Brethren Court, agreeing to meet back on the island one week later to plan the attack on Shipwreck Cove.

Before departing from the island, however, Finn ordered his crew to hunt down Teller, whom he realized was the individual Tia Dalma had warned him about. Teller, along with two mutinous allies, engaged an empowered Hamm. After a fierce battle, Finn was defeated, not by Teller and his friends, but by his own blade, which had backfired on him at a crucial moment. Hamm was presumed dead after plunging into the waves beneath Raven's Cove, prompting Teller to name himself captain of the ''Adipocere. ''The ship's new captain traveled to Shipwreck Cove to warn the Brethren of a theoretical attack orchestrated by Jolly Roger.

However, one of Hamm's officers survived the mutiny and wrenched the scorned captain from the waves. Singularly intending on gaining revenge on both Teller and the Brethen Court, Hamm and his officer Ellison waited on the Cove for one week, where they were rescued by a sympathetic Jolly Roger, who was still more than happy to march on Shipwreck Cove.

Backed by Roger's undead fleet, Hamm invaded the pirate stronghold, intent on exacting vengeance on those who wronged him. His fate afterwards, and the fate of both the Brethren and Teller Lohand, is unknown.